– to discuss Electoral Reforms for 2025 General Elections

A GROUP of electoral experts from the European Union (EU) has arrived in Guyana to meet with election stakeholders and discuss electoral reforms in preparation for the country’s next General and Regional Elections, set to take place in 2025.

The delegation will be staying for a few weeks. The first two delegation members arrived in Guyana on Sunday, while the delegation will also include Spanish journalist and member of the European Parliament, Javier Nart, who will arrive in Guyana at the end of the month.

On Tuesday, the delegation’s arrival was announced by EU Ambassador to Guyana, Rene van Nes, as he delivered remarks at an event at the Georgetown Club.

“There are electoral experts right now in Guyana, who are here and who, over the coming weeks will discuss electoral reforms ahead of the general elections in 2025,” van Nes said.

The two experts will be here for the entire month, while Nart will spend three days here when he arrives.

“The two technical experts with technical expertise will prepare for his visit. They will do all the groundwork. They will talk to everyone that is involved in the electoral process to have a good picture of where they stand and they will then brief him [Nart] so that during his visit, he can talk based on a technical assessment that has already been made,” van Nes shared

Van Nes noted that notwithstanding the co-occurrence, the delegation is not here in relation to Guyana’s Local Government Elections (LGE), which is scheduled for June 12. He explained that the delegation is, in fact, a follow-up to EU Observation Mission that appraised Guyana’s 2020 General and Regional Elections.

“Everyone will think that it is in relations to the local elections, but it is not. It is just that this was the only moment that we could get all of the agendas aligned ahead of the elections for 2025,” van Nes said.

In their final report on the 2020 elections, the Observation Mission’s had noted several recommendations, which this delegation will discuss with stakeholders.

“When we did the elections observation mission in 2020 we had here [a number of] experts, and we agreed then with the government that we would do a follow up mission,” van Nes said

He added: “So they [the Observation mission] left behind the report with recommendations on their suggestions and what they think Guyana can improve its electoral system, and now they are here to talk to the government about where are you in that process. Of course these were recommendations; it doesn’t mean that Guyana has to implement them. So they are here to have a conversation and see what happened with these recommendations.”

Van Nes noted that over the years, the EU has always supported Guyana in its efforts to strengthen democratic institutions, promote good governance, and combat corruption. This delegation is part of that.

He noted that such follow-up visits are a regular feature of the EU Observation Missions in countries they visit.

“In 2020 we said we’re not just going to write a report and come back five years later, and say ‘well here I am again, how are you doing?’, but instead we would have a follow up mission. so this is part of that process. We do this in many other countries as well when we have an elections observation mission. We come back to talk about that process and where they are,” van Nes said.