By Roysdale Forde S.C. M.P– Last Monday, May 26th, on the occasion of 59th Independence Anniversary of Guyana, a day after Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, failed in his attempt to hold unlawful and illegal election for a governor of Guyana’s Essequibo, a move that would have vilely violated our territorial integrity, President Irfaan Ali publicly announced that Guyana’s General and Regional Elections will be held on September 1, 2025.
However, instead of being a moment of democratic renewal, this announcement reeks of manipulation, desperation, and a rather brazen attempt to rig the rules in their favour. Given the preponderance of unresolved critical logistical and procedural electoral issues, his announcement struck me profoundly. In fact, I believe that most Guyanese struggled to find the gravitas in that announcement.
I think it is important for us to understand that, Guyana is careening toward an election without the bare minimum of democratic safeguards. It is simply extraordinary for a nation to claim to hold free and fair elections when its own population count is unknown. Where is the census report? It was conducted over a year ago. Yet, to date, there has been no official publication, no breakdown of the demographics, and no transparent accounting of population changes. Why the secrecy? The lack of data presents the competent authority with a serious disability to do proper electoral planning and facilitates space for manipulation.
Equally worrying is the unresolved issue of the bloated voters list—a problem that has plagued Guyana’s elections for years. Interestingly, when in opposition, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) turned the issue of the “bloated voters list” into a loud rallying cry. In fact, it was a centerpiece of its critique of the then APNU+AFC government. With earnest and repetition, PPP/C leaders lamented the state of the electoral roll, painting it as a breeding ground for fraud and a tool for electoral manipulation. But now, with the party firmly holding the reins of power, the rhetoric has conveniently shifted—or, more accurately, evaporated.
This selective outrage is not only hypocritical but also emblematic of a deeper issue within Guyanese politics: the instrumentalisation of democratic principles only when politically expedient. Imagine, when the PPP/C occupied the opposition benches following the 2015 elections, its critiques of the voters list were loud and persistent. They argued that a list comprising over 600,000 names—almost matching the entire adult population—was inherently suspicious. They warned of the dangers of ghost voters, inflated turnout rates, and the erosion of electoral credibility.
Yet despite their cries for reform, the PPP/C’s own record on voter list cleansing is, at best, ambivalent. During their previous tenure in office, the same bloated list existed. The list did not become problematic until the PPP/C lost power. And now, despite inheriting the very list they decried, the urgency to rectify it seems to have waned. They have no problem with it; they are promoting it as a good list. Therefore, one must ask: was the concern about electoral integrity genuine, or was it merely a strategic cudgel to delegitimise the results of elections they lost?
The bloated list continues to be a source of contention in Guyanese politics, and rightly so. Its size undermines public trust in elections and feeds conspiracy theories about voter fraud. As of February 2025, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) reported that the country’s voter roll has reached 738,484 registered voters. This figure represents a significant increase from the 660,998 registered voters in the 2020 General Elections and the 718,715 registered voters as of November 2024. But the PPP/C’s pivot from fiery critics to passive custodians reveals a troubling truth: for many in Guyana’s political elite, the voters list is less a matter of principle and more a tool of convenience.
Again, the PPP/C’s refusal to aggressively pursue a clean-up of the electoral roll raises serious questions about their commitment to credible elections.
Add to that the ongoing confusion surrounding biometric verification and you get a frightening picture of chaos, if not outright electoral fraud. That critical discussions about biometric safeguards have not been meaningfully ventilated in the public sphere, is something for all Guyanese to think about. We heard an assortment of empty excuses as to why biometrics cannot be implemented in the electoral process.
Nevertheless, in March 2023, the PPP/C government entered into a US$34.5 million contract with Veridos, a German-based provider of integrated identity solutions, to implement a national electronic identification (e-ID) system. According to the government, the initiative aims to streamline citizen identification processes by issuing biometric ID cards that integrate personal data such as fingerprints and facial recognition. It is amazing that they can enter into an agreement for e- ID but finds it difficult to do a similar initiative to secure the integrity of the nation’s electoral process.
Then there’s the passport debacle (Border Control Network). The government is scrambling to train overseas personnel to operate what many are already calling a flawed and defective passport system—one that is crucial for diaspora voting, a demographic the PPP/C is historically wary of. Many missions abroad do not yet have the infrastructure in place, and the government seems more interested in appearances than functionality. The result? A confused and disempowered diaspora just months before an election.
And as if that weren’t enough, the government recently approached Parliament for a staggering supplementary sum of over $55 billion—just months before the elections. Any Guyanese paying attention knows what this looks like: a state treasury being raided to grease palms, fund vote-buying schemes, and tighten the ruling party’s grip on power. It is a stunning move; one the PPP/C seems confident it can get away with.
But here is where their arrogance might be their downfall. The PPP/C operates as if Guyanese are too distracted or too weary to notice the layers of deception, the cunning financial manoeuvres, the quiet dismantling of transparency. But Guyanese do notice. They see a regime that governs not with moral clarity but with a corrosive hunger for power. Scandal after scandal, reckless spending, state contracts handed out to friends and family, and a growing culture of fear and silence—these are not the hallmarks of a functioning democracy. They are symptoms of a party that has lost touch with the people it claims to serve.
The PPP/C may believe they can navigate these elections with smoke and mirrors, but they underestimate the rising political consciousness of Guyanese. This is a nation that has lived through too much to accept electoral charades. The collective memory of stolen mandates, institutional rot, and broken promises is still fresh. And this time, Guyanese are watching more closely than ever.
So yes, elections are set for September 1, 2025 but this is not just another election date—it is a reckoning for the PPP/C dictatorial regime.
