Opposition-Nominated GECOM Commissioners Challenge AG Nandlall’s Claims on Voters’ List

Opposition-nominated commissioners on the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) have challenged recent statements by Attorney General Anil Nandlall regarding the integrity of the voters’ list, arguing that existing mechanisms are inadequate to remove the names of ineligible and deceased persons.

In a letter to the editor signed by Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin and Desmond Trotman, the commissioners said that GECOM has concluded another cycle of national registration and has commenced the Claims and Objections exercise. That process allows eligible but unregistered persons to apply for registration, registrants to request changes to particulars or transfers, and individuals to object to the inclusion of unqualified persons, including deceased persons, on the register.

The commissioners noted that the Attorney General has “seized the moment to tell the world and the observer missions, in particular, that this is the mechanism for the cleansing of the list of ineligible and deceased persons,” and has argued that claims of a “bloated” voters’ list are baseless and cannot withstand public scrutiny.

However, they contended that the Attorney General bears ultimate responsibility for piloting legislation intended to address the continued presence of ineligible names on the register and the Official List of Electors, even after the conduct of Claims and Objections. They said his public posture suggests there is no need to address concerns about a bloated list because mechanisms are already in place to continuously sanitise it.

According to the letter, this approach effectively maintains what the commissioners described as a “corrupted” list, pointing to thousands of registered overseas Guyanese who have died after 2008, when the current list was established and has since been continuously updated, including during the current registration cycle. They argued that there is no adequate mechanism for those names to be deleted.

The commissioners further accused the Attorney General of ignoring the fact that GECOM has not provided for the removal of the names of deceased persons whose deaths are not reported by the General Registrar’s Office but are instead reported by the Chief Medical Officer and the Commissioner of Police.

They said the Attorney General is “masking the corrupted state of the list and by his actions condoning and facilitating the retention of thousands of names of dead persons on the voters’ list.”

Providing broader context, observers have long argued that Guyana’s voters’ list is bloated, noting that the Official List of Electors for the September 1, 2025 elections contained approximately 757,690 registered voters in a country with a total population of just over 800,000.

Observers contend that this disparity cannot be reconciled with the size of the eligible voting population and say concerns are compounded by the absence of a biometric registration system, which they argue limits GECOM’s ability to conclusively verify voters’ identities and effectively remove the names of deceased or otherwise ineligible persons.

The opposition-nominated commissioners also criticised the current state of the Elections Commission, describing GECOM as being in a “rogue and comatose state,” and said there have been no meaningful efforts to correct known deficiencies in its systems. They accused the Attorney General of misleading the nation and members of the international community on the issue.