Former Speaker of the National Assembly, Senior Counsel Ralph Ramkarran has stated that in the absence of Constitutional reform, it would be difficult to remove the Election Commissioners who were nominated by a previous Opposition.

The change in the political landscape following the 2025 Elections, which led to APNU+AFC being replaced by the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party as the country’s main opposition, has sparked calls for the current Election Commissioners who were nominated by a previous Opposition to step down and make way for three new Commissioners.

But in an interview that will air this Sunday on SOURCES talk show, Senior Counsel Ramkarran said the Constitution is silent on the issue of term limits for the Commissioners.

“They are Constitutional Officers, they can’t be removed easily,” he said.

Contextualizing the issue, Mr. Ramkarran explained that in the past, the Constitution established a clear term limit for the Elections Commission. .

“In the past before Jimmy Carter, the Elections Commission consisted of representatives of the government and the opposition, and the Constitution provided that at some point after every election, the Commissioners are required to resign – the appointment ends,” he said.

It was explained further that once the elections were over, the Commissioners were required to vacate their posts.

However, changes to the Constitution in 2001 saw the removal of the clause that provided for the Commissioners to vacate their posts. Those changes, Ramkarran said, were based on the recommendations put forward by The Carter Center.

“During the Carter regime, the changes that were made in the Carter regime were to the effect that the government had three members and the opposition had three members, and the two of them get together and appoint a chairman. In the process of making those changes, the clause terminating the offices of the Commissioners was left out, was omitted. I think it was omitted inadvertently. So, the offices remain,” Senior Counsel Ramkarran explained.

The Senior Counsel, who once served on the Constitutional Reform Commission, said it is now clear that there is a need for the Constitution to be amended to allow for Commissioners to vacate their posts, as was the case in the past.

The Leader of the Opposition, Azruddin Mohamed, wants Election Commissioners – Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin, and Desmond Trotman – to be replaced, but the Commissioners have made it clear that they have no intention of stepping down.

In an interview with News Source earlier this week, Mr. Alexander – the country’s longest serving Elections Commissioner – said the Opposition Leader should seek a judicial review on issue or push for Constitutional reform.

“In relation to us as Commissioners, we have a view from a legal perspective as to our standing and we have said in the past that we will obey a legal determination of this matter or if they wish to reconfigure the commission, they have a legislative option, so that between and among the Leader of the Opposition, the Government and the Parliament, there are options that are available to bring this matter to a head and to show that GECOM is in placing and doing its work – no such option has been taken,” Alexander said.

The Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, retired Jutice Claudette Singh, who has admitted that she has no power to remove the Elections Commissioners, has not convened a meeting of the Elections Commission since the last elections in September 2025. (Svetlana Marshall)

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