The Government of Guyana is proposing several sweeping changes to the country’s electoral laws. According to Attorney General Anil Nandlall, the proposed changes are as a direct result of the situation that took place at the last general elections, which saw the final results being delayed for months, as allegations of fraud were being hurled at each other by the political parties.

In addition to proposed amendments to the Representation of the People Act, proposed amendments are also being made to the National Registration Bill, and the Representation of the People Bill.

“One of the main purpose in the amendments which are proposed to this piece of legislation is to further ensconce that continuous registration system and significantly, to fix by law when the cycle is to stop for the purpose of claims and objections and when the cycle is to start back running to register people all year-round,” the AG said.

In response to a concern regarding measures to be put in place to combat unregistered deaths posing a threat to the credibility of the voters’ list, Mr. Nandlall said more than 90% of the deaths within the country are registered.

He explained that GECOM should always be in a state of readiness for elections. It is proposed that GECCOM conducts registration throughout the year in order to update its list.

“Guyana has certain peculiar demographics that are intimately and intricately connected to elections and we can’t turn a blind eye to that political reality. So what these proposals have sought to do is simply to explain, to list some factors that the Chief Elections Officer must take into account in identifying polling stations and how many polling stations a polling place must have,” the AG said.

Directly responding to calls to de-politicize GECOM, the Attorney General said that this process will not address the structure of GECOM but statutory requirements.
“This exercise can’t change the electoral system, it can’t change the composition of GECOM, there is a time and place for that, and this is not that process,” Mr. Nandlall said.

He said that the system will be independent of elections and will always see GECOM in a state of readiness for elections since the list of electors will be updated every six months.

In addition to those amendments, the government is proposing to divide at least three regions into sub-districts.

Regions Three, Four, and Six will be divided into sub-districts, with each being distinguished by their names and acting independently.

Region Three will be separated into three polling sub-districts of Essequibo Islands and River, St. Lawrence to Cornelia Ida and Den Amstel to Arabio Creek.

Region Four will be divided into four units which would be East Bank Demerara, North Georgetown, South Georgetown and East Coast Demerara, while Region Six will be divided into three sub-districts; East Bank Berbice to Canje, Upper Corentyne, and Lower Corentyne. 

The Attorney General said those proposed changes could enforce greater levels of accountability and coherence in the electoral process.

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