GUYANA | Guyana's Electoral Crisis Demands Constitutional Reform, Not Cosmetic Change, Says Walton Desir

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, October 22, 2025 - When the Chair of Guyana's Elections Commission admits that GECOM is "not duly constituted," the institution tasked with safeguarding democracy has effectively declared itself illegitimate. 

Yet for Amanza Walton Desir, head of the Forward Guyana Movement, this revelation is neither shocking nor surprising—it is the inevitable consequence of a system designed to fail.

"The current impasse at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is not primarily about personalities," Walton Desir stated in a blistering assessment released on October 22. "The real problem is that the Commission is politicized, and structured in a way that entrenches the two party system."

Her diagnosis cuts through the usual political theater surrounding GECOM's recurring crises. While others focus on which commissioners should be replaced or which party representatives deserve seats, Walton Desir identifies the fundamental flaw: GECOM was never designed to function as an impartial arbiter. 

It is, by its very structure, a creature of partisan politics—and no amount of shuffling personalities can remedy that original sin.

Built to Break Down

"The current GECOM, which was for all intents and purposes meant to be a temporary intervention, is designed to fail whenever political actors disagree, because its functioning depends on political consensus and not on professional independence," Walton Desir argues. 

"What we are witnessing is the inevitable breakdown of a system built on political control rather than institutional independence."

This is not merely academic critique. The Forward Guyana Movement has taken these concerns to court, challenging GECOM's interpretation of constitutional requirements and the Representation of the People Act. 

For Walton Desir, the current debacle vindicates those legal challenges entirely. "The Commission's dysfunction confirms what we at Forward Guyana Movement have warned from our inception, that Guyana cannot build a democracy on a broken foundation."

Her rejection of superficial solutions is equally forceful. When others propose simply replacing old commissioners with representatives from newly elected parties, Walton Desir dismisses this as meaningless theatre. 

"The problem is not the people at the table, the problem is the table itself," she declares. "Substituting one set of politically influenced commissioners who act as party representatives rather than impartial guardians of our votes for another set, does nothing to strengthen democracy."

The Rot Beneath the Ribbon-Cutting

Walton Desir's critique extends beyond GECOM's mechanics to challenge Guyana's broader approach to nation-building. 

"No road, bridge, or skyscraper can replace trust in our institutions," she warns. "If elections are not fair, then everything built on them—our laws, budgets, and leadership on the whole—rests on shaky ground."

Her language becomes particularly pointed when addressing what she calls "triumphalism"—the tendency to celebrate infrastructure projects while ignoring institutional decay. 

"Triumphalism, celebrating 'progress' while our institutions crumble and the very foundations of our democracy rot, is not patriotism," she states. "It is delusion. It is cowardice disguised as confidence. It is the arrogance of those who think that cutting a ribbon or announcing a new project can paper over decades of systemic failure."

True patriotism, in Walton Desir's vision, demands confronting uncomfortable truths: "True patriotism, true progress demands facing the rot and fixing it, and not with cosmetic exchanges."

A Caribbean Model Worth Emulating

The solution, Walton Desir insists, requires constitutional transformation. "What is required now is far more fundamental and it is painfully obvious. 

Every observer mission, year after year, has said the same thing. There must be a complete transformation of the Guyana Elections Commission into a professional, independent, and politically neutral body."

She points to Jamaica's Electoral Commission as proof that better models exist within the region. "We have seen this model succeed elsewhere in the Caribbean. 

Jamaica's Electoral Commission of Jamaica, for instance, is considered the regional gold standard. It is a system that has earned the trust of citizens and the respect of the international community. Guyana deserves the same, we can have nice things too, but we the Guyanese people must insist!"

Her call to action is unambiguous: "The next Parliament must prioritize constitutional reform to establish a genuinely independent GECOM, one insulated from party politics, operating transparently, and accountable only to the people of Guyana."

No More Band-Aids

Walton Desir's intervention arrives at a critical moment. As GECOM stumbles from crisis to crisis, the temptation will be strong to apply another temporary fix, to reshuffle commissioners and declare victory. 

But as she powerfully argues, Guyana cannot afford another round of cosmetic surgery when radical reconstruction is required.

"Ignoring the problem doesn't make it go away," she warns, "it only guarantees that the next election crisis will be worse than the last."

The question now is whether Guyana's political class will heed this call for genuine reform—or whether they will continue rearranging deck chairs on a constitutionally unsound vessel, hoping the next electoral storm won't be the one that finally sinks it.

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