By Antonio Dey | HGP Nightly News
As Guyana heads into a critical election year, the Alliance for Change (AFC) is raising alarm bells over what it calls the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) failure to implement key internationally recommended electoral reforms.
Speaking recently, Opposition Parliamentarian Catherine Hughes, a senior member of the AFC, voiced strong concerns that GECOM has ignored vital recommendations made by international observer groups, including the Carter Center, the Organization of American States (OAS), and the European Union (EU), following the highly controversial 2020 General and Regional Elections.
“These fundamental recommendations were well articulated at the time and were proposed to ensure that the challenges and errors of 2020 would not be repeated,” Hughes stated.
Key Observer Recommendations Ignored:
Hughes pointed out that among the critical recommendations left unaddressed are:
- A comprehensive reform of the voter registration system
- A house-to-house registration process to refresh the outdated voters list
- Implementation of new technologies to enhance transparency in vote tabulation
- Clear procedures for the transmission of results
- Accessibility of Statement of Polls (SOPs) for cross-verification by authorized stakeholders
Following a recent meeting with the EU’s Elections Exploratory Mission, Hughes revealed that only 2 of 26 recommendations made in the aftermath of the 2020 elections have been implemented.
“Five years later, this kind of non-action by GECOM is unacceptable… It is atrocious,” Hughes said.
The AFC argues that citizens’ confidence in GECOM is at risk if these reforms are not implemented before the 2025 elections, which are already expected to be hotly contested.
Despite a meeting held “several weeks ago,” Hughes said the AFC has heard nothing back from GECOM regarding its concerns.
In the aftermath of the 2020 elections, international observer missions highlighted irregularities, delays in vote tabulation, and a lack of transparency, which shook public trust in the electoral process.
The AFC now warns that without implementing the suggested reforms, Guyana could see a repeat of the election debacle that triggered months of political unrest in 2020.
