–applications for party symbols must be submitted by June 22, GECOM announces

THE Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has officially approved the work-plan for the conduct of General and Regional Elections, scheduled for September 1, 2025.
The decision was taken during the Commission’s statutory meeting held on Thursday, May 29.
In a statement released on Friday, GECOM announced: “Political parties desirous of contesting the upcoming elections will be required to submit their respective Lists of Candidates on the 14th July, 2025 i.e., Nomination Day”.
The Commission has also advised that applications for the allocation of party symbols must be submitted by June 22, 2025.
To finalise the Official List of Electors (OLE), a short Claims and Objections exercise will be conducted from June 16 to June 20, allowing eligible persons who will be 18 years or older by June 30, 2025 to register.
GECOM wishes to remind registered voters who have changed their address that “any elector who [has] changed their residential address from one electoral division/district (Region) to another, will have to go [to] the polling station associated with their previous address in order to vote in the elections”.
The Commission says it is moving forward with implementation of the plan “to ensure that the elections are conducted in a free, fair, and transparent manner”.
This was confirmed by People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C)-nominated GECOM Commissioner Sase Gunraj during an invited comment on Thursday, following a meeting with officials from the electoral body and the nominated commissioners from both sides.
“It was well interrogated by the commissioners from the other side as well. They asked a plethora of questions, and so, eventually, it was approved,” Gunraj told the Guyana Chronicle.
He explained that the work-plan sets out a list of tasks which has to be executed between now and elections, including the holding of elections.
Some of these tasks, he said, would be related to the preparing of ballot papers, publishing notices, etc. Each of these tasks, he explained, has a time ascribed to it.
On Tuesday, a meeting was held with commissioners following President Dr. Irfaan Ali’s announcement that General and Regional Elections will be held on September 1, 2025.
Gunraj had told members of the media that Tuesday’s meeting was the first since that announcement, and that they had all received a work plan from the Chief Elections Officer Vishnu Persaud earlier in the day, and were set to discuss same.
As Tuesday’s meeting got underway, the opposition-nominated commissioners, Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin, and Desmond Trotman, staged a walkout.
Gunraj noted that while he cannot predict that there will be such a recurrence from those commissioners, his team remains committed to ensuring that the deliverables are met in time for the polls.
“We are committed to ensuring that the deliverables for holding the elections are met and that whatever presence etc that is necessary to ensure that is done and whatever work that is necessary to ensure that is done, will be done,” he said.