Leader of the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party, Azruddin Mohamed, may have to wait a while to try out his ability to nominate commissioners to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) when he becomes opposition leader, since the current officeholders’ seats are secure.
Commissioner Vincent Alexander confirmed that GECOM’s seven members hold their positions with legal protection, meaning they cannot be removed and can only be replaced if they resign, die, or otherwise vacate the office. This means Mohamed could be waiting years before nominating a commissioner, or may never have the opportunity to do so in his term.
The commission is composed of three members nominated by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), three by the traditional opposition, led in the past by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), and a chairperson selected through consultation between the president and opposition leader. The current chair, retired Justice Claudette Singh, was agreed upon in 2019 by then President David Granger and then Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo.
At a press conference following his party’s devastating 2025 electoral loss, APNU leader Aubrey Norton argued that GECOM’s structure has undermined public confidence. “You cannot have a free and fair election with an election commission that is biased and a chairman that is biased,” Norton said.
He added that while the 3–3 composition was intended to encourage consensus-building, in practice the chair now functions as an arbiter siding with the government. “Therefore, it is the will of the government alone, because the chairman votes with the government, and we are where we are,” he said.
With the current state of affairs, GECOM will continue to feature commissioners nominated by both the governing PPP and the traditional opposition. For the foreseeable future, the new main opposition will have no pick on the body that it was able to nominate.
