Georgetown, Guyana – With national politics heating up and parties maneuvering for influence, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has issued a clear-cut decision on how “Joinder of Lists” will be handled moving forward — and what happens when a seat in Parliament becomes vacant.
Coming out of its statutory meeting on Thursday, July 10, 2025, GECOM announced that its deliberations on the Joinder of Lists and the process for filling parliamentary vacancies were grounded solely in the legal framework, specifically the Representation of the People Act (ROPA).
In an election season where every seat counts, the ruling could significantly impact smaller political parties hoping to gain representation through strategic alliances. What is a Joinder of Lists?Under Section 22(1) of ROPA, two or more political parties can agree to combine their candidate lists to improve their chances of securing seats in the National Assembly.
This isn’t a new party or a merger, each party still appears separately on the ballot paper. But behind the scenes, their votes are pooled together for the purposes of seat allocation. Here’s what that means in practice: Ballots are still cast for each individual party.
The votes are combined when calculating how many total seats the alliance — or joinder — is entitled to.If the combined votes win seats, those seats are then split among the parties based on who brought in how many votes.
The party with the most surplus votes within the alliance will get any leftover seats that aren’t clearly divided. And if only one seat is won, it goes to the party with the highest number of votes in the combination.
Who Decides Which Candidates Go to Parliament?Despite joining forces, each party keeps control over its own list of candidates. Only the Representative or Deputy Representative of the party that actually won a seat in the combination can select — or “extract” — someone from their list to go to Parliament.What Happens When a Seat Becomes Vacant?
GECOM also clarified the rules under Section 99A of ROPA regarding what to do if a parliamentary seat becomes vacant (outside of a full dissolution of Parliament): The replacement must not already be an elected MP. They must come from the same candidate list that originally held the seat.
Again, only the Representative or Deputy Representative of that list has the authority to extract a new member. The Commission’s explanation comes at a time when several smaller parties are exploring joint strategies to make their way into the National Assembly.
The detailed clarification is expected to reduce confusion and ensure transparency as the country gears up for its next major electoral cycle.GECOM emphasized that these rules are not up for interpretation, they’re set in law and will be applied as written.
