GEORGETOWN, GUYANA – With just days to go before Nomination Day, the Alliance For Change (AFC) is ringing the alarm bells; warning that the event could spiral into disorder if the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) doesn’t break its silence on how it plans to manage the process.
The formal presentation of the Lists of Candidates is scheduled for Monday at the Umana Yana from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. But according to AFC Leader Nigel Hughes, outside of the date, time, and location, GECOM has provided no guidance on how the process will actually unfold.
“If GECOM does not establish and publish what the procedures are, then the assumption is the person who gets there first is the person who is going to be registered as the first political party,” Hughes said at a Friday press conference. “Now therein lies the problem… everybody is rushing, jumping over the fence as happened the last time, that is a recipe for chaos. And where you have a lot of party supporters who are going to be there, that’s a recipe for disaster.”
Already, representatives from multiple political parties, including the APNU and AFC, have been lining up outside the Umana Yana, staking their claim in anticipation of Monday’s showdown. The AFC says it is second in line. The APNU came first. But Hughes claims the PPP/C has also turned up, asserting that they are second.
“Imagine thousands of persons there in the morning, especially with the APNU and the PPP’s contingents literally next to each other in Young Street and Main Street,” Hughes warned. “If there is no procedure, you are going to have a mad rush towards the Umana Yana. Now, the police have barricades, but if you don’t have the procedure and those barricades are breached, it’s chaos.”
The AFC said it formally wrote to GECOM requesting details on how Monday’s process would be managed. To date, no response has been received.
Hughes said with tensions already rising, the lack of structure could ignite confusion and even physical confrontations.
“There are more than 20 parties hoping to contest these elections. GECOM cannot wait until the final hour to say how this will be done,” Hughes stressed. “It owes this country, particularly the competitors, a responsibility to ensure there is order and fairness.”
Nomination Day is often treated as a symbolic launch to the political race. But with rival parties already on edge and huddled in tight quarters, the AFC is warning that without urgent action, the first major moment of the election season could become its first major disaster.
