By: Travis Chase |HGP Nightly News |
The Private Sector Commission (PSC) has delivered strong praise for the Government of Guyana and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) in its assessment of the 2025 General and Regional Elections, directly contradicting concerns raised by major international observer missions.
Presenting the PSC’s elections report, Chairman Captain Gerry Gouveia Jr. said the Commission found no evidence that state resources were misused to secure political advantage during the electoral process. He maintained that the elections were peaceful, credible, and transparent, and commended both GECOM and the government for their conduct.
The PSC’s position stands in sharp contrast to the findings of the European Union Election Observation Mission, which raised serious concerns about what it described as the extensive misuse of state resources by the governing People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) in the lead-up to the polls.
According to Captain Gouveia Jr., the PSC’s conclusions were informed by what he described as one of the organisation’s largest domestic observation exercises to date, involving approximately 150 trained observers deployed across seven administrative regions on Election Day.
However, the European Union’s report paints a markedly different picture. EU observers concluded that the advantages of incumbency were extended far beyond acceptable limits, creating an uneven playing field during the campaign period.
The EU report noted that immediately after President Irfaan Ali announced the election date on September 1, the government accelerated and widely publicised a series of major public infrastructure projects, including hospitals, schools, roads, and bridges. These initiatives were accompanied by the rollout of social support programmes that, according to observers, were repeatedly linked to PPP/C campaign messaging.
The EU also found that state-owned media and government-controlled social media platforms were used to amplify the ruling party’s political narrative, blurring the line between official government functions and partisan campaign activities.
Despite these findings, the Private Sector Commission has stood firmly by its assessment, maintaining that none of the actions identified by the EU amounted to abuse of state resources. The differing conclusions underscore a rare and striking divide between domestic observers and international monitoring bodies on the conduct of Guyana’s 2025 elections.
