A months-long constitutional standoff over appointments to Guyana’s key elections oversight body has intensified after a senior ruling-party affiliated legal expert has confirmed that President Irfaan Ali lacks the authority to install three new opposition-nominated election commissioners, citing a critical lack of existing vacancies on the commission.
Speaking to Demerara Waves Online News on condition of anonymity, the legal expert, who has publicly aligned with the governing People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC), framed the restriction as a clear requirement of Guyana’s governing law. “Once there is no vacancy, how can the President appoint? The President cannot unless somebody is removed – in other words, a vacancy must exist first. Even if the President wanted to move forward with the appointments, the Constitution does not allow it,” the expert explained.
The dispute traces back to June 30, when current Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed submitted his three nominees – attorneys Roysdale Forde, Siand Dhurjon and Damien Da Silva – to President Ali for appointment. Citing Article 161(3)(b) of Guyana’s Constitution, Mohamed claimed he had completed required consultations with all opposition parties represented in the 65-seat National Assembly to finalize the selections.
But the landscape of Guyana’s parliament shifted dramatically following the September 1, 2025 general and regional elections, which upended decades of political convention for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). Since the return of democratic elections in 1992, the two largest political blocs – the PPPC and the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) and its coalition APNU – held a shared grip on National Assembly representation, a balance that was reflected in GECOM’s structure, with each side holding three commissioner seats.
Last year’s election result broke this long-standing arrangement. The PNCR-led APNU, which previously held the position of main opposition, lost its status after securing only 12 seats. It was replaced by the We Invest in Nationhood party, which won 16 seats to become the new main opposition, with the Forward Guyana Movement claiming an additional single seat. Despite this seismic shift in parliamentary representation, the three incumbent PNCR/APNU-appointed GECOM commissioners have refused to step down, arguing that they can only be removed through resignation, a formal court order, or an amendment to Guyana’s constitution and electoral law.
Strikingly, the ruling PPPC-affiliated legal expert’s interpretation of the constitution aligns fully with the position of the incumbent PNCR commissioners: Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin and Desmond Trotman. “They are lawfully appointed commissioners who have not tendered their resignation,” the source confirmed. The legal expert added that the only viable path to resolving the deadlock is through judicial intervention, noting that the existing constitutional framework does not provide an alternative mechanism to adjust GECOM’s composition following the change in parliamentary opposition leadership.