GEORGETOWN, GUYANA – August 6, 2025 — With just weeks to go before Guyanese head to the polls, a newly formed political alliance is promising to shake the foundations of how the country is governed. The Forward Guyana Movement (FGM), made up of three smaller parties, has launched A Contract With Guyana—a 39-page manifesto that calls for sweeping constitutional changes, including a dramatic overhaul of the electoral system.
At the heart of the proposal is a pledge to scrap proportional representation in favour of the pre-1964 first-past-the-post model, allowing voters to directly elect their Members of Parliament. FGM’s leader and presidential candidate, Amanza Walton-Desir, didn’t hold back during the launch, declaring it’s time to end what she called the “list system culture” that rewards loyalty to party leaders over merit or public support.
“We are the generation that will see power being returned to the people,” Walton-Desir said to an audience of supporters and media. “This will be the end of a system where sucking up to the head of the list gets you into Parliament.”
She was joined by fellow signatories to the contract—Nigel Nyambe London of The People’s Movement (TPM) and Dorwain Bess of the Vigilant Political Action Committee (V-PAC). Together, they painted a picture of a political landscape that has long left too many voices out, and a country ready for real change.
FGM’s push for a constituency-based electoral system comes as no surprise to critics of the current model, which allows parties to allocate seats from a closed list. Supporters of proportional representation argue that it ensures fairer representation, especially for smaller groups. But Walton-Desir insists that system has failed to deliver real accountability.
While the alliance admitted it didn’t formally consult the private sector or civil society in drafting the contract, Walton-Desir said the team reviewed existing position papers and incorporated expert opinions from home and abroad. “These voices have been out there, but consistently ignored,” she said.
Among the policy points in the contract is a call to uphold and strengthen collective bargaining—an issue that has stirred frustration among workers in both public and private sectors in recent years.
Whether FGM will gain traction with voters remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: they’re not playing by the old political rules. The alliance has framed itself as a movement ready to confront entrenched power structures, and it’s aiming to turn frustration into votes.
With election day set for September 1, FGM is betting that Guyanese are ready to flip the script.
