Confidence in Guyana’s democracy stands very low, with a recent poll conducted by the International Republican Institute (IRI) showing only 38% of respondents believe that the official election results reflect the will of the people. Of the 38%, only 22% said that the official results “definitely” reflect the will of the people while 16% said it probably does.
The official results of the 2020 election, which are irreparably stained by allegations of voter fraud and mass irregularities, are currently being challenged in the courts. The PPP government has spared no effort in its attempts to have the Election Petitions dismissed instead of challenging the claims in a court of law.
One major concern is that the list of electors is a bloated list, which creates an opportunity for voter fraud. In 2021 the Ministry of Health estimated the adult population of Guyana to be 513,000 when they stated that 396,042 or 77.2 percent of adults are partially vaccinated against COVID-19.
The government has thus claimed that Guyana has 513,000 adults while at the same time the list of electors for the 2020 elections stood at 661,000 registered voters. So according to data published by the PPP government, the list of electors is bloated by about 148,000.
An attempt to clean the list by means of House to House Registration has been completely rejected by the PPP who successfully challenged the process in the courts and ended the process of cleaning the list.
Though the PPP continues to proudly claim to have legitimately won office without the use of electoral fraud, it is clear that the Guyanese people do not trust the results that placed the regime in power. What is also clear is that an electoral system that has the confidence of only 38% of the population is utterly unacceptable in a democratic society.
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