–Commonwealth Observer Group says

NO evidence has been found to suggest that voter roll inflation was leveraged for electoral manipulation in Guyana’s September 1, 2025, General and Regional Elections, according to the Commonwealth Observer Group (COG).
The COG’s final report acknowledged that “positively, [the Guyana Elections Commission] (GECOM) responded to concerns relating to the list and eligibility to vote through public information; however, these efforts could have been strengthened with a greater evidence basis for GECOM communications.”
The report highlighted that the Official List of Electors (OLE) was a recurring topic of discussion throughout the election process.
Stakeholders frequently described the list as “bloated,” noting that it included 757,690 electors compared with a population estimated in United Nations projections at roughly 826,353.7.
The report observed that “the reasons for the mismatch between the size of the list and the projected size of the population were not always widely understood,” reflecting ongoing public debate and speculation.
The Commonwealth Observer Group noted that the government conducted a Population and Housing Census in 2022, though the results remain unpublished.
According to the report, some interlocutors suggested that releasing this data “would have contributed to improving perceptions of transparency in the electoral system.”
It added that it could have supported “scrutiny, audit and deduplication” of the list, despite legal constraints on modifying the OLE.
The COG report also explained factors contributing to the list’s size, including Guyana’s significant diaspora population. “There are currently no legal provisions for diaspora voting, and proxies can be appointed only in very specific circumstances,” the report stated.
Court rulings were noted as another limitation, preventing the removal of registered voters on the grounds of non-residency under existing legislation.
Efforts to ensure the list’s accuracy included the removal of deceased voters. The report observed that “records from the Registrar of Births and Deaths were shared with GECOM, which enabled the removal of names of voters who are deceased from the list.”
However, it added that legal safeguards continue to restrict the extent to which GECOM can remove names from the OLE through other pathways. Interlocutors reported that operationalising legislation to allow death reports from the commissioner of police and chief medical officer “has yet to be finalised.”
Overall, the Commonwealth Observer Group concluded that concerns regarding the OLE, while persistent, were not indicative of electoral manipulation. The report commended GECOM’s proactive engagement with the public but highlighted that communications could have been further strengthened with a more substantial evidence basis.
The COG for the Guyana 2025 elections, chaired by Fekitamoeloa Katoa ‘Utoikamanu, included 10 experts from various countries, who observed the electoral process across seven regions.
The 2025 Guyana General and Regional Elections, held on September 1, marked a historic moment in the nation’s political landscape.
Incumbent President Dr. Irfaan Ali of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) was re-elected, while his party secured a majority in the 65-seat National Assembly with 36 seats.
We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) emerged as the official opposition with 16 seats, followed by the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) with 12 seats and the Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) with one seat.