Opposition may either boycott elections or participate under duress—David Hinds

Apr 08, 2025 News

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─ says GECOM’s unprepared to deliver free and fair elections

Kaieteur News-  The unpreparedness of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to host free and fair elections may cause the political opposition to either boycott the upcoming general and regional polls or participate under duress.

This is according to co-leader of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), Dr. David Hinds, who said on Monday that there could be no division among parties on the matter.

According to Dr. Hinds, GECOM’s Commissioner, Vincent Alexander, has revealed that the Commission could be ready for the much-anticipated elections by September 2025. If that information is correct, Hinds told journalists at his party’s weekly press conference, “Then we can assume that the body has formally or informally apprised the President of this proposed timetable. It should be noted that the Vice President has repeatedly floated November as the likely month for the election.”

He stressed that whether the elections are held in September or November, the elections body has very little time to ensure the elections are free and fair.

The party is adamant that the minimum requirement of implementing biometrics will produce a voters’ list that requires the true size of the electorate. However, it also believes that GECOM has now run out of time to have the mechanisms in place by September or November.

It is against this backdrop that the WPA believes that while the Commission may be ready to meet the statutory deadline to conduct the elections, it is not ready to conduct a free and fair election.

“GECOM’s failure to meet the latter standard is due to a combination of delaying tactics on the part of a majority of the commission and the capture of the organisation’s machinery by the PPP. The WPA, therefore, declares that it has lost all confidence in GECOM to deliver free and fair elections,” Dr. Hinds told reporters.

Hinds, a political scientist, stressed that the situation is a travesty Guyana cannot afford, as in a situation where there have been consecutive elections challenged by both sides of the political divide, “GECOM’s stubbornness and downright disregard for the recommendations of the opposition and several observer organisations smacks of official conspiracy to deliver fraudulent elections.”

Therefore, the WPA is convinced that “the PPP will do anything to manufacture a victory at the election.” The party begs to question why GECOM is prepared to take what it deems as a colossal risk? As well as “Why is GECOM’s chair prepared to risk her credibility by presiding over the most barefaced seizure of the electoral process?”

Dr. Hinds stressed that unless the international community intervenes, or there is mass action by the citizens of Guyana, “the opposition would be forced to either boycott the election or participate under duress.”

He said that while both options are dangerous, his party’s instinctive response would be to go the route of boycotting the elections. For this to be impactful, he said it will have to be accepted by all of the opposition parties to ensure that the plans of the PPP are disrupted.

“The opposition cannot be divided on this matter,” Dr. Hinds argued. While the question may arise of the logic behind participating in an election that a party contends is rigged against them, the obvious reason is that non-participation will be relinquishing the entire government to the PPP.

“WPA has much sympathy for this contention. For the record, our party boycotted the 1980 election because we were convinced it would be rigged, but in 1985 we participated in the election of that year although we thought it would be similarly fraudulent,” he further explained.

The opposition parties and other organisations have made repeated calls for the implementation of biometrics and the scrubbing of the voters list in the past few months. However, these calls were always met with reasons of why they could not be accommodated.

Only on Thursday last, the Guyana Trade Union Congress (GTUC) said it had written the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), the Government of Guyana, as well as international partners on electoral reform ahead of the 2025 elections.

Addressing media personnel at a press conference, GTUC’s General Secretary, Lincoln Lewis, said the current voters list remains inaccurate with 738,484 names on the preliminary list. This is despite the country’s population being estimated at approximately 750,000 to 780,000.

“This discrepancy highlights the urgent need for electoral reform. Both the Organisation of American States and CARICOM have called for comprehensive voters registration and campaign finance reform, but these recommendations are yet to be implemented. GECOM is tasked with ensuring a credible voters’ role and overseeing fair elections,” Lewis told the media.

He told the media, “We have written… (on) those two areas, the EU, we have written Carter Center. Our position is very clear. The trade union movement has fought for one man, one vote in this country.”

Lewis said there are reports of irregular voters registration, “such as a significant surge in registration at a single address in Ogle raises serious concern.”

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• biometrics, boycott, Elections, opposition, WPA

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