Georgetown, Guyana — As Guyana edges closer to its 2025 general and regional elections, the Carter Center’s observer mission has commended recent legal reforms but cautioned that many of the critical recommendations made after the disputed 2020 polls remain unaddressed.
In its preliminary findings, the mission noted that while amendments to the Representation of the People’s Act (RoPA) and the National Registration Act (NRA) have introduced important changes in transparency and voter access, civil society and opposition parties are still struggling to fully grasp what these reforms mean in practice.
Legal Reforms: Progress and Shortfalls
The Center highlighted several new measures meant to improve public trust in the process. Among them are requirements for simultaneous electronic posting and transmission of polling station results, stricter obligations on presiding officers to ensure transparency during counting, and an end to the controversial house-to-house voter registration.
Tabulation, often the flashpoint of past disputes, has also been decentralized. Instead of being concentrated at the district level, results in Regions Three, Four, and Six will now be tabulated in subdistricts under the supervision of new officers. In total, tabulation will take place at 17 locations across Guyana’s 10 electoral districts, with Statements of Poll (SoPs) posted online in real time.
Violations of these procedures carry severe penalties, ranging from failure to publish results to obstruction of party agents. Still, the Carter Center urged the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to release clear tabulation procedures to the public, warning that transparency is only as strong as public understanding.
Other legislative tweaks include provisions for recounts, mandatory publication of election manuals within 30 days of an election proclamation, and requirements for the Chief Elections Officer to submit a report within 12 hours of the final results. Notably, new measures also mandate greater accessibility for persons with disabilities when polling stations are designated.
Voter Registration and a Bloated List
Equally significant are the changes in voter registration. The 2025 elections will be conducted on the basis of an Official List of Electors (OLE) released on July 30, which contains 757,690 names — nearly half the size of the national population. The list includes 376,703 men and 380,987 women.
The Carter Center did not observe registration directly but pointed out that the size of the list has become a major concern among citizens and political stakeholders. The problem is compounded by the government’s failure to publish the 2022 census results, leaving the public without an up-to-date demographic baseline to compare against the voter roll.
Under the amended laws, residency is no longer a requirement for voting, and court rulings have reaffirmed that Guyanese living abroad retain their eligibility. While this expands enfranchisement, it also fuels debate about whether the list truly reflects the resident population.
During a brief “claims and objections” period in June, GECOM processed 6,563 claims and just four objections before certifying the OLE on July 29. Commendably, the list is now searchable on GECOM’s website and will be publicly displayed in all 10 regions.
The Carter Center acknowledged improvements in removing deceased persons from the roll through broader collaboration with state agencies. However, it stressed that more work remains to be done. Importantly, the mission emphasized that while concerns about the size of the OLE are valid, it has found no evidence that the list has been deliberately inflated.
A Familiar Warning
For many Guyanese, the Carter Center’s findings echo the bitter memories of 2020, when disputes over tabulation nearly plunged the country into crisis. By flagging both progress and gaps, the mission is once again urging Guyana’s electoral stakeholders to treat credibility as a matter of national stability.
The reforms are a step forward, the Center suggested, but whether they will restore trust among voters depends less on laws passed in Parliament and more on how openly and consistently those laws are implemented in the months ahead.
