Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has made it clear that the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has no intention to go beyond its allotted constitutional time in Office, as he shut down a suggestion by the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) to defer, if necessary, the 2025 Elections to allow for systems to be put in place for enhanced biometrics at polling stations, and a clean voters’ list. 

“We don’t want a single day beyond what is constitutionally given to the PPP. We don’t want a single day beyond that, because, the next day they will say, illegal government,” the Vice President said. 

At the time, he was speaking during his party’s weekly press conference at Freedom House. 

Describing it as a “trap”, the Vice President said the Government will simply not fall for it. He said elections must be held on time. 

“We don’t want extra time. We want the elections to be held on time. We want international observers to be here. We want all the dead people from the list to be removed. We want the political parties to put robust polling agents in the polling stations themselves. We want full compliance with the new RoPA. We want the States of Poll to be published before the tabulation, all of that we want,” Mr. Jagdeo said. 

The main opposition parties – People’s National Congress/Reform (PNCR), the Alliance For Change (AFC), and the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) – have been amplifying their calls for a clean voters list, in addition to the use of enhance biometrics at the place of poll. 

But the Vice President, while referencing the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act of 2022, said there are robust electoral systems in place to guard against voter impersonation and other acts of electoral fraud. 

“The polling place, it is a robust environment – you have police present, every political party has a polling agent, they can object, they look at the names, they can tick off, the tally sheet, they know how many people have come in, and that has been the case. And so, of the 640,000 people on the list, because we have continuous registration, only 460,000 voted. Those were the ones who were legitimate voters,” the Vice President said. 

Mr. Jagdeo said during 2020 General and Regional Elections voting went well, and it was until there were reported attempts to tamper with the results, that things went downhill.

However, during the recount of the votes cast during the March 2, 2020 elections, the Opposition had raised the issue of voter impersonation, and though the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), on more than one occasion, during recount excise, confirmed that based on immigration records, people who were out of the jurisdiction, voted, the Vice President said the Opposition has not produced a thread of evidence to prove its case. 

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