–Walton-Desir backpedals after confronted with details of actual timeline for correction of defects
–leaders say not interested in what happened in 2020, despite being part of APNU+AFC

AS anticipated by many, the Alliance For Change (AFC), flanked by representatives of small political parties, are now waving the banner of injustice and railing against the very system that they had no issues with in the 2020 General and Regional Elections.
Leader of the AFC and Presidential Candidate, Nigel Hughes; Leader of the Assembly for Liberty and Prosperity (ALP), Simona Broomes; and Leader of the Forward Guyana Movement, Amanza Walton-Desir, among others, held an impromptu press conference in front of the Umana Yana on Saturday, chastising the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) for a plethora of issues.
In a move reeking of selective memory, Hughes led the wave of complaints against GECOM after being told that the AFC was third in line to submit their candidate lists for the upcoming September 1 General and Regional Elections. Just five years ago, the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the AFC administration brazenly bypassed several political parties who were waiting to submit their lists.
Back then, there were no outcries from the AFC nor the APNU, of which Broomes and Walton-Desir were prominent figures. Now, confronted with the same procedures—this time not in their favour— they are recasting themselves as victims.
When pressed by the Sunday Chronicle as to why there were no objections to the system in 2020, Hughes deflected and ranted about apartheid.
He also stated: “In relation to attempting to say that events occurred in a particular way and manner in the past, that somehow or the other, we are bound by that. That’s why I was dealing with custom and practice, that can’t be the case.”
Broomes, who was a minister under the APNU+AFC coalition government, distanced herself from the known fact and maintained that she and her colleagues were not responsible for the list.
She also added: “It don’t mean that something that happened in 2020 is right to happen now.”
What was more bewildering was Walton-Desir peddling the inaccurate claim that the timeline to rectify defects on the lists has been significantly reduced. In 2020, political parties had two days after the January 10 Nomination Day to rectify defects. The same in 2025, parties have two days after July 14.
Walton-Desir claimed that it was seven days in earlier elections, and it has been reduced to just 24 hours, but when put on the spot and reminded that it is the same timeline, she deflected. Instead of standing firm on her inaccurate claim, Walton-Desir shifted to vague grievances about process, conveniently omitting that these same timelines went unchallenged when her coalition benefited from them.
On Nomination Day for Guyana’s 2020 General and Regional Elections, the APNU+AFC was accused of breaching GECOM’s procedures. As political parties prepared to submit their lists of candidates based on the “first come, first served” registration protocol outlined by GECOM, Jonathan Yearwood had raised the issue, noting that other parties camped out at GECOM but APNU+AFC went first.
Yearwood had noted that at no time did the ruling coalition of the APNU+AFC join the campout or join the line of political parties waiting patiently to register with GECOM.