WIN to meet opposition GECOM commissioners today

Feb 01, 2026 News

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…APNU says Mohamed should have engaged the party before talks with Commission

(Kaieteur News) – Leader of the Opposition and the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party Azruddin Mohamed will be meeting with opposition-appointed commissioners of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) today to iron out matters relating to their vacation of office.

Mohamed, in an invited comment, told Kaieteur News that he has invited the three commissioners: Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin and Desmond Trotman to a meeting to formally indicate his desire for them to vacate the post.

“I will be meeting with the commissioners to have a chat with them on the way forward as it relates to see if they will be able to still serve, because what I’m hearing is that they’re medically unfit. That is what we are hearing. So, I will be meeting with them on Sunday morning to discuss [these issues],” he said.

Mohamed told Kaieteur News that he has made several attempts to contact APNU representatives to no avail. He said he called Norton to discuss several matters in relation to Parliament and his calls were unanswered and never returned.

“I called Mister Campbell; he never returned my call. So, I don’t know how we going to move forward,” he stated.

Mohamed indicated last week that he intends to formally request that the APNU-appointed commissioners on GECOM, vacate their seats.

The move comes days after Mohamed’s election as Leader of the Opposition, a position previously held by the People’s National Congress-led APNU, whose nominees currently occupy the three opposition seats on GECOM. With WIN now the main opposition, new commissioners from the party are expected to take their place.

On Thursday, Mohamed told Kaieteur News that he and his team met with Chairperson of GECOM, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh and Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Vishnu Persaud to discuss the appointment of scrutineers and the status of the Commissioners following his election as the new Leader of the Opposition, which reflects a changed dynamic in Parliament.

Based on the discussion, which he described as “productive,” the WIN party leader told this newspaper that the party will be writing the three APNU commissioners Vincent Alexander, Desmond Trotman and Charles Corbin, who currently sit on the Commission to ask them to resign.

He told this newspaper that his team plans to follow due process which entails utilising all possibilities to ensure the party’s interests are represented at the level of GECOM.  “I cannot disclose at this moment for obvious reasons but [the course of action] will depend on the response we receive when we write the commissioners,” Mohamed said.

WIN Member of Parliament Duarte Hetsberger who also attended the meeting expounded “The advice of chair is that she cannot remove anyone from the commission… she said that is outside of her remit. She however believes based on the constitution that the only right thing to do is to have new commissioners in place given that there is new opposition.”

Following the September 1, general and regional elections, Justice Singh in anticipation of new leader of the Opposition and the likely changes at the level of the commission suspended the business of GECOM. The Chair alluded to provisions found in Article 161(3) (B) of the Constitution. “We have had new elections and remember there is a new opposition. It’s not APNU anymore in power, there is another opposition in place; WIN which has the majority of 16 seats,” she told Kaieteur News late last year.

“When Parliament convenes then the Opposition Leader will have a chance to choose who his commissioners are…”

Article 161 (3) (B) of the Constitution in relation to GECOM states: the “Three members are to be appointed by the President in accordance with the advice of the opposition leader tendered after meaningful consultation with non-governmental political parties represented in the National Assembly.” However, the article does not give direction on when and under what circumstances the seats should be vacated.

However, on Friday, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) argued that WIN should have engaged the party on the status of the GECOM commissioners rather than approach the elections body directly. WIN’s leadership met with Chairperson of GECOM retired Justice Claudette Singh last week.

This is the position of APNU’s leader Aubrey Norton. Norton told reporters on Friday at his party’s weekly press conference that there has been no change in his party’s position on the removal of opposition-appointed commissioners.

“…when the chairman of the commission spoke the first time, I said at our press conference that she has no authority, that it’s a permanent commission, and that unless there’s a change in the law, not one of the commissioners could be removed.

Look, Guyana arrived at a permanent commission after years of wrangling. I recall the PNC was one at the time pointing out the dangers of a permanent commission while acknowledging the positives, and so you have a change in the dynamics but the law hasn’t changed and in so far as the law hasn’t changed then there is nothing that the chairman could have done,” Norton said.

Norton, who is also leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), told reporters that as an opposition party he thought WIN would have, “engage us in consultation so that we could deal with the issue and point out to him and his team that it is the law.”

“I think it doesn’t look well if you as an opposition run to GECOM for GECOM to tell you we can’t do anything,” he said noting that WIN approaching GECOM directly shows that the party failed to do its due diligence on the matter.

He maintained that GECOM is permanent and so too are the appointed commissioners.

In response, APNU Member of Parliament (MP) Ganesh Mahipaul reminded that Vincent Alexander and Charles Corbin were nominated by the PNC /R while Desmond Trotman was nominated by the APNU/AFC.

“They cannot be removed by those very parties who nominated them, and that is an important point to note, and I think there is a commissioner or two from the PPP side that were claimed to be from the PPP side that were nominated when the PPP was in opposition. The point I’m making is that when these nominations are made and they’re appointed, they serve at the behest of the people of Guyana really, not necessarily to a political party, because the political party after making the nomination no longer have that leverage or that claim to remove,” Mahipaul posited.

Similarly, Leader of APNU’s parliamentary team Dr. Terrence Campbell opined “that the issue of appointments by the leader of the opposition is not limited to the opposition commissioners.”

He reminded that the Chairperson of GECOM is appointed by the president who selects him or her from a list of six nominees that are provided to him by the leader of the opposition.

“I find it curious that only the issue of the opposition commission as has come up in the public uh well uh since the appointment of the leader of the opposition,” Dr. Campbell said.

He stressed that there has been no objection to the Chairperson of GECOM Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh and “if I had to identify a problem at GECOM, I would first identify the chairperson as the source of most of the problems rather than the opposition commissioners.”

The party officials said that by not addressing the issues related to the GECOM Chair it can be concluded that WIN is in agreement with the occurrences at the electoral body.

Meanwhile, opposition-nominate commissioner Vincent Alexander told Kaieteur News on Saturday that he received a letter from WIN inviting him to a meeting today. He said the party spoke to a “need to discuss the status of the commission.”

Alexander made it clear that despite WIN’s position on who occupies seats as opposition-nominated commissioners, “there is no basis for me to resign.”

He has always argued that the appointment of commissioners attracts a security of tenure that has no term limit. Like the leaders of APNU, Alexander is of the view that only a change in the laws can rectify the situation at GECOM.

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• APNU, GECOM Commissioners, media, win

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