Prisoners won’t vote in 2025 elections – Gunraj

Despite constitutional provisions allowing most prisoners in Guyana to vote, incarcerated individuals will be left out of the electoral process in the 2025 elections as requisite systems are not in place.

GECOM Commissioner Sase Gunraj confirmed this during an appearance on The Starting Point podcast, noting that while there’s no legal prohibition for most prisoners, the absence of enabling systems and legislation makes their participation practically impossible.

“GECOM is not stopping prisoners from voting—but there’s no system to let it happen,” Gunraj said plainly.

Article 159 of the Constitution states that only prisoners convicted of election-related offences are barred from voting. All others retain the right. However, the Representation of the People Act, which governs the electoral process, does not state how voting for this group will be facilitated.

“We are bound by statute,” Gunraj explained. “We can’t change the law. That’s Parliament’s job.”

Gunraj acknowledged the recommendations from electoral observers, particularly the Carter Center, which in its 2020 report urged GECOM to ensure “procedures facilitate voting rights of all eligible voters, including prisoners.”

But GECOM, he said, has no authority to act on it per se.

“We can only work with what the law gives us,” he stressed. “There’s no enabling framework like what exists for the disciplined services.”

He compared it to jurisdictions like Belize and some U.S. states, where legislation and logistics support the process. In Guyana, there’s no such preparation, just as in past elections.

Gunraj highlighted real-world challenges: what happens if someone is remanded a week before elections?

“The ballot boxes are already packed and deployed. Where do you fit them in?”

He said even if a cut-off point was introduced, complaints of disenfranchisement would still arise.

Though opposition GECOM commissioners raised the issue recently, Gunraj questioned the timing.

“These commissioners have been at GECOM for years,” he noted. “Why raise it now, days into the election cycle? What was done in the off-season?”

GECOM has since voted, despite the constitutional clarity, not to allow prisoners to vote in these elections on September 1, 2025.

“It’s done and resolved,” Gunraj said. “Without the law to support it, we cannot proceed.”

The prison population in Guyana hovers around 2,000. Yet, without the machinery to make that happen—early voting systems, internal polling stations, and transportation protocols—those rights are effectively nullified.

Gunraj didn’t reject the idea in principle. In fact, he said GECOM would welcome such reform—but only if Parliament acts first.

“We’re always on the side of enfranchisement,” he said, “but we can’t act beyond our legal limits.”