Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Guyana, Ambassador René Van Nes on Thursday said that a request was recently made by the Guyana Government for the EU Election Observer Mission to return for the November 2025 Regional and General Elections.
The Ambassador said the request was oral but the official paperwork is expected soon.
He would not say directly from whom the request came but the Ambassador recently met with Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hugh Todd.
“The government has now indicated a keen interest to have another EU Election Observer Mission for the general elections of 2025.
“We were recently informed of that and the EU will look favourably at that expression of interest as soon as have we have the paperwork to look at that,” the Ambassador told the media.
The European Union Election Observation Mission (EOM) participated in the March 2020 elections and submitted its final report in March 2021.
By May 2023, the mission returned to follow up on the 26 recommendations it made for improving national elections.
Then, more than three years after those protracted elections, EU EFM, in assessing the progress of those recommendations, reported that two of the 26 recommendations were fully implemented while many more were partially implemented.
On Thursday, Ambassador Van Nes shared similar sentiments, noting that while the 2025 elections are still about two years off, there has been progress and continued willingness to work on implementing the recommendations.
“The government is taking a number of recommendations forward forcefully.
“It is important to note that a number of these processes will take time…I do observe a keen awareness to be prepared [for the 2025 elections].”
The fully implemented recommendations were for a clear tabulation process to be outlined and increased transparency in the results process.
This was achieved with the government’s amendment to the Representation of the People’s Act and the National Registration Act.
Those amendments also allowed for the partial implementation of a recommendation urging year-round voter registration with the Guyana Elections Commission now having registration offices open for 10 months each year.
The government has also moved towards adopting data protection with the Data Protection Act now in place.
