By Mark DaCosta- With Guyana’s 2025 General and Regional Elections fast approaching, the integrity of the country’s electoral system is under intense scrutiny by stakeholders. One of the most alarming revelations comes from the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), which has uncovered a deeply suspicious surge in voter registration at the Ogle Sugar Estate, located in District #4.
According to the GTUC, an investigation into the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) for January 2025 revealed that the number of registered voters at Polling Division # 414115 — Ogle Sugar Estate — jumped from a mere 9 voters in 2020 to a staggering 119 in 2025. Even more shocking, 110 of these newly registered voters are listed under a single address: Lot 5A Ogle, East Coast Demerara. General Secretary of the GTUC, Lincoln Lewis, has expressed shock at this incredible revelation. Lewis also expressed concern the practice may be widespread not isolated.
The Table below is an extract from GECOM’s Preliminary List of Electors
The GTUC investigation has revealed that Lot 5A is a barrack-style accommodation traditionally used by transient workers rather than long-term residents, raising serious doubts about the legitimacy of these registrations. The 110 registrants, all male foreign nationals, reportedly work in various capacities ranging from civil engineers to labourers. Their identification numbers also appear in sequential blocks on the list, which strongly suggests a mass registration effort rather than natural, individual voter enrollments.
The GTUC has called for an immediate investigation into this highly suspicious increase in voter registration at Ogle, warning that it could be part of a broader scheme to manipulate the upcoming elections in favour of the governing People’s Progressive Party (PPP).
Beyond the shocking case at Ogle Sugar Estate, the wider electoral roll itself is riddled with glaring inconsistencies. The Official List of Electors (OLE) now stands at 738,484 registered voters, a figure that defies logic when compared to Guyana’s total population.
According to data from the World Health Organisation, Guyana’s total population in 2023 was estimated at 826,353. If the OLE is correct, this would mean that nearly 89 percent of the country’s entire population is registered to vote, a statistical impossibility given that a significant portion of the population is under the age of 18.
The situation is further exacerbated by the PPP government’s deliberate delay or refusal in releasing the results of the 2022 National Population and Housing Census. Despite the Guyana Bureau of Statistics promising a preliminary report by late 2024, to date, February 2025, the data remains undisclosed. Many analysts believe this delay is intentional, designed to prevent independent verification of Guyana’s true population and the extent to which the voter list is inflated.
In response to these troubling discrepancies, opposition parties, civil society groups, and other stakeholders have called for a delay of the elections by up to a year to allow for a fresh house-to-house registration exercise and the implementation of biometric voter verification.
Opposition parties agree that a new house-to-house registration process would allow GECOM to remove deceased voters, duplicate registrations, and fraudulent entries, ensuring that only legitimate Guyanese citizens are included in the voter list. Meanwhile, the introduction of biometric systems at polling stations would prevent voter impersonation and multiple voting, two of the most common forms of electoral fraud.
However, both the PPP regime and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) have rejected these proposals outright. GECOM, under the leadership of Chairperson Retired Justice Claudette Singh, has ruled that introducing biometric voter verification for the 2025 elections is “not feasible” due to supposed time and resource constraints.
This refusal to adopt basic electoral safeguards has fueled widespread suspicion that the PPP is deliberately resisting reforms that would make PPP rigging of the elections more difficult.
Retired Justice Claudette Singh, the Chair of GECOM, has faced intense criticism for her handling of electoral matters. Many political analysts and opposition figures believe that she is firmly aligned with the PPP and is acting in the regime’s interest rather than ensuring a free and fair election.
During the controversial 2020 elections, Singh made several decisions that directly benefited the PPP, including her refusal to address concerns about the credibility of the recount process. Now, with the 2025 elections looming, her continued resistance to biometric verification and her failure to address the bloated voter list have only strengthened the belief that she is acting as a PPP puppet rather than an impartial elections official.
Guyana’s democracy is at a crossroads. The refusal of the PPP-controlled government and GECOM to cleanse the voter list or implement basic electoral reforms raises serious concerns about the credibility of the upcoming elections. The case of Ogle Sugar Estate is just one example of what appears to be a broader strategy to manipulate voter registration in the PPP’s favour.
The opposition’s calls for delaying the elections to allow for proper voter registration and biometric verification are entirely reasonable, analysts say. However, with the PPP regime and GECOM standing in the way of reforms, the 2025 elections are shaping up to be yet another highly contentious and potentially fraudulent process.
The question now is whether the Guyanese people will allow their democracy to be hijacked by an administration determined to cling to power at any cost.
