Georgetown, Guyana – August 24, 2025 – Have you recieved a call from an unblocked number? Inquiring about whether you received government cash grant? And asked to support the People’s Progressive Party at the upcoming General and Regional Elections? Well one political party is of the view that this new trend is an invasion of privacy.
Forward Guyana Movement has written to international election observer missions, alleging that the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is misusing government cash grant data to solicit votes ahead of the upcoming national elections.
In a letter signed by party leader Amanza Walton-Desir, Forward Guyana claimed that citizens who registered for the Ministry of Finance’s 2024 cash grant programme are now receiving political calls linked to the PPP/C. According to reports, the calls came from numbers including +592-761-8532 and +592-761-9361, with citizens being asked whether they intended to support the ruling party.
Walton-Desir argued that this practice represents a serious abuse of state resources and undermines the principle of free and fair elections, noting that using government-held personal data for partisan purposes violates both the purpose for which the data was collected and citizens’ fundamental rights.
The letter cited international standards that forbid the use of state resources for partisan gain, including the OAS Inter-American Democratic Charter, the OSCE/Venice Commission Guidelines, the Carter Center’s Electoral Standards, and United Nations principles such as Article 21 of the UDHR and ICCPR General Comment 25, all of which affirm citizens’ rights to elections free from coercion and undue influence.
It also pointed to Guyana’s own Data Protection Act of 2023, which requires that personal data be used only for the purpose it was collected, and the Representation of the People Act, which criminalises undue influence and coercion in elections. While no monetary inducement was offered, the party argued that the use of cash grant data to contact voters constitutes an unfair advantage tied to a state-administered programme.
Forward Guyana has called on observer missions to urgently investigate the allegations, monitor government communications, and issue recommendations to safeguard the independence of the electoral process. “The credibility of the upcoming elections depends on swift action to prevent the abuse of state resources,” Walton-Desir wrote, urging international missions to treat the matter as a priority.
