GUYANA | Guyana Protesters Demand a New Voters List

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, October 12, 2022 - Chanting  “We Want A Clean List,” “Clean Voters List or No Election,” and citizens want GECOM to have a chair who is “more responsive to the time,” citizens took to the streets on Tuesday to support demands by the Opposition and civil society groups for a new, clean voters list.

Protestors gathered in front of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on High Street, Georgetown to bemoan the fact GECOM is yet to put in place a clean voters List, to replace the present one which represents over 91% of the total population of Guyana.

They  took the opportunity to recall  that the reports of the regional and international observer missions to Guyana for the March 2020 General and Regional Elections have criticised the voters list and recommended a full sanitisation of the list.

Chants included demands for a new list or no election and the replacement of Justice Claudette Singh as Chair in favour of someone who is “more responsive to the time.”

Among the protestors were Members of Parliament (MPs) of the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC), including Sherod Duncan, Christopher Jones and Vinceroy Jordan, Opposition Chief Scrutineer, Carol Joseph Smith as well as Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton.

Duncan pointed out that  “a dirty voters list cannot produce clean elections” Stating “the dutty list, this stinking, crossing list will not do” as…. “a dirty list cannot produce credible election.”

Jones accused Government-nominated commissioners on GECOM of fighting tooth and nail against a clean voters list, intimating the “PPP has already rigged the 2025 elections in their favour.”

 In his comments, Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton, said a clean voters list was important to the democratic process and free and fair elections. 

The Opposition as well as civil society have been demanding for a clean list along with improved biometrics  allegations were made of persons voting multiple times using different identification cards. 

In October 2015 the PPP in opposition called for a new voters list to be compiled on the basis of a fresh house to house enumeration and improved biometrics. However, In 2022 President Irfaan Ali said the List was not the problem. 

Ali’s refusal to acknowledge this flies in the face of a recent International Republican Institute survey that found 81% of Guyanese feel electoral reforms are necessary. 

In addition he seems to be ignoring the CARICOM Electoral Observer Team’s final report which said that  “as a minimum condition of electoral reform, the Team recommends the urgent need for the total re-registration of all voters in Guyana. 

It therefore behooves the Commission to create a new voter registry especially given the suspicion that the 2020 register was bloated, a suspicion which is not without merit.”

Ali is  also ignoring the Organisation of American States (OAS) Observer Team’s call for the Guyana Election Commission “undertaking a house-to-house registration exercise earliest.”

The new Preliminary Voters List (PLE) has 684,354 names which represents over 91% of the total population of Guyana.

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