Carter Center says it has received no evidence of inflation of voters’ list

Carter Center says it has received no evidence of inflation of voters’ list

While noting that it did not observe voter registration and has not assessed the quality of the voters’ list, international observer, The Carter Center in a pre-election report said it has also not received any evidence of inflation of the voters’ list.

The official list of electors has 757,690 voters listed. A number of the political parties contesting the elections have voiced their concerns about the size of the list and its growth by more than 100,000 since the last elections in 2020.

The Carter Center in its report stated that following Court decisions and legislative changes, registered voters cannot be removed from the list on the grounds that they no longer reside in the country.

The Center said while recent changes to the legal framework sought to be responsive to past concerns about removal of the deceased from the list and an expansion of GECOM’s ability to engage with a wider range of agencies, further efforts are required in this area. According to the Carter Center, those factors contribute to the size of the list, and while the relative size of the official list of electors raises concerns for many Guyanese, it has not received evidence of inflation of the voter roll.

It was noted that the Guyana Elections Commission conducted an abbreviated “claims and objections” exercise for the 2025 election from June 16-22, and during that period, GECOM received a total of 6,563 claims and four objections.

The Carter Center said GECOM ultimately certified the Official List of Electors on July 29.

The Center noted that many interlocutors have raised concerns about the size of the OLE. It said while the government conducted a new census in 2022, the results have not been released, and that is a regrettable lapse which obscures public understanding of basic population demographics and their potential relation to the size of the voters’ list.

The Carter Center is among the International Observers in Guyana for the Elections.

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