Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh has informed the Leader of the Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) that 2000 Commonwealth citizens were listed to vote on the Official List of Electors for the just concluded elections.

The Official List of Electors had the names of more than 750,000 voters – almost the size of the country’s population.

The Forward Guyana Movement, which was one of six parties that contested the September 1 General and Regional Elections, had written to the Elections Commission twice seeking information on the number of commonwealth citizens on the Voters’ List.

“The number of voters listed in the Official List of Electors for the September 1, 2025 General and Regional Elections is 2000,” Justice Singh said in letter dated September 30, 2025.

The Chairman said that at the time, GECOM was unable to provide an analysis of the number of Commonwealth citizens, who “actually” voted in the just concluded elections because the voters’ lists are inaccessible.

Walton-Desir, during an appearance that will air this Sunday on SOURCES, said FGM is dissatisfied with the response.

“Now, it is a nice neat figure but what was interesting is that we could not get from GECOM the desegregation. So, how many of those people are Nigerians? How many are Bangladeshis? How many are Trinidadians? How many are from Sri Lanka? GECOM has yet failed,” Walton-Desir said.

Walton-Desir said GECOM could have easily disaggregated the figures, adding that there is no harm in doing so.

“We are not satisfied! We are not satisfied! What we want to see is the disaggregation of that number because like I said, it would be no harm to present it because if you know is 2000 then you ought to be able to tell me five are from here, 10 are from there, 300 are from there, that information is not forthcoming,” Walton-Desir said.

In providing the long awaited figure to FGM, the Chairman of the Elections Commission said Commonwealth citizens were registered and allowed to vote based on Article 59 of the Constitution, and Section 6 of the National Registration Act.

But Walton-Desir believes that it is time to remove such provisions from the Constitution.

“Now, we have to understand that this Commonwealth citizen issue is a holdover from colonial times that allowed British citizens, who are overseas etc, to be able…So, you a colonial holdover that is being exploited to keep an oppressive government in power,” Walton-Desir said.

Having secured a seat in the National Assembly, FGM intends to press for Constitutional Reform to address such issues.

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