Chairperson did not act unilaterally in naming elections date

The Guyana Election Commission (GECOM) has rejected the assertion by opposition-nominated commissioners that President Irfaan Ali’s naming of September 1, 2025, as the date for General and Regional Elections was apparently based on unilateral advice by the GECOM Chairperson Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh, calling it misleading.
Opposition-nominated commissioners on GECOM, during a press conference on Monday, also claimed the timeframe was not in keeping with a work plan that was last discussed on May 20. They said the date was not finalised by the commission, with September 22 still under consideration. The commissioners claimed they only saw the latest work plan recently and were unaware of the set date before President Ali’s announcement on May 26.

However, government-nominated Commissioner Sase Gunraj in response told reporters the President’s election date is within the constitutional timeframe. While he noted that he would not speak for the Chairperson, Gunraj said setting the date is the President’s prerogative and emphasised that 90 days is sufficient to meet all legal election requirements.
GECOM, in a statement today explained that the chairperson received a call from President Ali on May 23, 2025, enquiring whether GECOM would be in a position to hold the elections within three months. The chairperson, GECOM said asked the President to allow her to consult with the Chief Election Officer Vishnu Persaud before she gave him an answer.
GECOM noted that the chairperson consulted with the chief election officer immediately after her exchange with the President and the chief election officer informed her that, in anticipation of a possible need to conduct the elections before they became constitutionally due, within three months, he had prepared a draft work plan to be in a state of readiness to ‘hit the ground running’ should the need arise.

In this regard, he further informed the chairperson that this draft, with the commencement of the three months on June 1, 2025, placed election day at August 25, 2025, i.e., within less than three months. It is specifically in consideration of this circumstance that the chief election officer advised the chairperson that the secretariat would be able to conduct the elections within three months, GECOM explained.

“The ‘work plan’ that was mentioned during the press conference, in fact, could not be seen as the work plan to be used for the conduct of the upcoming elections. What was discussed was a schedule of activities with relevant timelines for completion. The schedule of activities was prepared based on a request for the GECOM Secretariat to prepare a schedule indicating what would be the earliest date on which the elections could be held after they become constitutionally due. Brief observations on the schedule of activities were made by a commissioner during a Commission meeting,” GECOM explained.

Accordingly, an undertaking was given by the chief election officer to consider the observations and amend the schedule if necessary. The schedule of activities was never intended to be used as the work plan for the elections, nor was it discussed in this context, GECOM said.
“Armed with the information provided by the Chief Election Officer, and in consideration of Article 61 of the Constitution that ‘elections shall be held on such day within three (3) months after every dissolution of Parliament as the President shall appoint by proclamation’, the Chairman advised President Ali that GECOM would be able to hold the elections within three (3) months. Hopefully, the foregoing will dispel the publicised notion that the Chairman acted unilaterally, as was propagated during the above-referenced press conference,” the release noted.