Former minister in the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition government, Jaipaul Sharma, has publicly declared that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) was not legally qualified to contest the 2025 General and Regional Elections. In a detailed post shared via his social media platform, Sharma claims that the PPP/C failed to meet the legal requirements outlined in the Representation of the People Act (ROPA), Chapter 1:03, particularly Sections 11A(4) and 11B(1).
According to Section 11B(1) of the Act, a political party must contest at least six of the ten geographical constituencies, and per Section 11A(4), must also compete for no fewer than thirteen of the twenty-five geographical constituency seats. Sharma asserts that the PPP/C failed to satisfy these criteria, yet was still permitted by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to participate.
He further alleged that the PPP/C manipulated its constituency candidate lists by submitting names of candidates who were not registered voters in the constituencies they were nominated to represent, which, he argues, violates the foundational purpose of geographical representation in the National Assembly. “Isn’t it the general rule that the candidates and signatories supporting candidates for a particular geographical constituency must come from the same geographical constituency?” Sharma questioned, accusing GECOM of enabling a breach of electoral integrity.
According to Sharma, under Section 14(1) of ROPA, GECOM should have flagged the PPP/C’s lists as “defective” and demanded corrections. Since that was not done, Sharma argues that all votes obtained by the PPP/C are “null and void” and should not have been used in the allocation of seats in the National Assembly — not for the geographical constituencies nor for the national top-up list.
“If the law had been followed, it would be as if the PPP/C never submitted or refused to submit lists for Constituencies 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10,” Sharma stated. “They should have been disqualified.”
He has provided several documentary evidence to support his allegations, a few of which are shown in his post, including screenshots of GECOM-approved candidate lists. These, Sharma claims, clearly display candidates listed with addresses outside the constituencies they were nominated to represent — a situation he calls a deliberate deception of both the electorate and GECOM.
In his appeal, Sharma called on the leaders of opposition groups We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) and the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR)/APNU to file a legal challenge, possibly through an election petition, and to seek a formal court interpretation of ROPA. He recommended the services of Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes, noting Mendes’ reputed grasp of Guyana’s Constitution and electoral laws.
Sharma also contrasted the PPP/C’s candidate list with that of APNU, saying the latter ensured that their nominees for each constituency were actually from those areas, which he claims can be verified by their listed addresses. He questioned why, if GECOM allows cross-constituency nominations, APNU didn’t take advantage of placing its political heavyweights in other constituencies for strategic gain.
Closing his statement, Sharma warned that allowing such alleged infractions to stand would betray the original intent of geographical representation and undermine electoral democracy in Guyana. “Our legal minds must consider that this could not have been the intention of the framers of the Constitution,” he wrote.
As of now, no official response has been issued by GECOM or the PPP/C regarding Sharma’s claims.
