GEORGETOWN, SEPTEMBER 2, 2025 — The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has pushed back strongly against allegations from the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) and its partners that foreign nationals were improperly included in the September 1 General and Regional Elections.
In a statement on Tuesday, GECOM said it had noted an unsigned and undated document in circulation, purportedly issued by the GHRA, which it described as “clearly intended to undermine” the efficient conduct of the polls and to cast doubt on the integrity of the process.
Central to the GHRA’s concerns were claims of inclusiveness, foreign voter participation, and the issuance of national ID cards. GECOM, however, rejected the assertions point by point.
The Commission stressed that citizens of Commonwealth countries, including Bangladeshi and Indian contract workers, are legally entitled to register and vote once they are 14 years or older, have lived in Guyana for at least a year by the qualifying date, and meet the age requirement on election day. “Once Commonwealth citizens are registered as electors, they are entitled to vote,” the statement said.
GECOM also defended its practice of issuing national ID cards to such citizens, explaining that the designation “C” has long been recorded for nationality on registration forms and that this has been standard practice for over two decades.
The Commission said it complied fully with the law in preparing the Official List of Electors (OLE), pointing to continuous registration since January 2023 and several Claims and Objections exercises, the last of which was tied directly to the OLE’s preparation. Any suggestion of exclusion, GECOM argued, was “mischievous.”
Other concerns raised in the GHRA’s document, including claims about “voting en bloc” and demands for greater transparency in verifying voter eligibility, were also dismissed. GECOM noted there is no rule preventing voters from arriving at polling stations in groups, and added that eligibility and verification are already addressed through the registration process and the publication of preliminary and revised voters’ lists.
The Commission said suggestions that persons from Bangladesh and India were covertly added to the OLE were baseless.
“We therefore call on the GHRA and the organisations who endorsed the document to desist from making unsubstantiated assertions which, in the eyes of the Commission, are aimed at undermining the integrity and credibility of the yet-to-be-concluded elections,” GECOM stated.
