–Chief Elections Officer says; GECOM Chair affirms there will be no repeat of 2020

CHIEF Elections Officer (CEO), Vishnu Persaud, on Monday, said that the declaration of results for the September 1, 2025, General and Regional Elections could be made as early as the end of following day after the close of polls.

Persaud made this known while speaking to members of the press at the end of Nomination Day held at the Umana Yana.
According to the CEO, the law requires that as soon as a Statements of Poll (SoP) are processed, they should simultaneously be posted to the website.
“So, the results of the election could be known even before we declare it because you could be sitting in your sitting room and be doing your own tabulation,” he said.
However, insofar as a declaration is concerned, Persaud stated that at the level of GECOM, at the district level, they are earmarked to have a declaration made on the night following polling day, meaning election results could be declared by the night of September 2.

“As a declaration is concerned, at the level of GECOM [Guyana Elections Commission], at the district level we are earmarked to have declarations done by the night of the day after election,” he told reporters.

However, he noted that the public declaration would depend on whether there would be a request for a recount, among other things.
Persaud went on to note that if there is a request for a recount, it would naturally hold back a national declaration.
In 2020, the country waited for five months to get the correct results of the elections. Citizens and persons abroad watched as the APNU+AFC and its affiliates attempted to derail the process and influence an outcome that favoured them.

GECOM Chairperson, retired Judge, Justice Claudette Singh, however, affirmed: “We would not have that kind of saga.”
Justice Singh assured Guyanese that stakeholders would be more vigilant, and the SoPs would be published online for the world to see.
“We have been looking at a lot of, many matters, and we are putting things in place,” she said.
The GECOM Chairperson said both statutory and legislative safeguards have improved since 2020. International technical assistance is also being provided to bolster voter education and operations.
She said: “Well, we have separate persons working with operations. We have somebody who is working with, well, generally, you know, like to assist us in, well, putting out more information. You will find a lot of information going on. Yes, civic and voter regulation, and you will find information going on as well.”