Though together, each party in joinder list to get seats based on how many votes individually received

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Thursday explained how seats will be allocated to parties part of a joinder list.

“Providing the combination (of parties) won seats in the National Assembly, an electoral quota needs to be established within the combination to determine how seats would be distributed therein.

“The electoral quota is determined by dividing the total number of valid votes received by the combination by the number of seats allocated to the combination,” GECOM said in a release.

This can be explained in simpler terms.

Firstly, seats are allocated based on an electoral quota to parties contesting the elections. The Joinder is considered a single party in this case, where all votes for each party within are combined.

In Guyana’s elections, the allocation of seats in the National Assembly is determined by dividing the total number of valid votes cast for all of the parties by 65 (which is the number of seats available in the National Assembly) to find the electoral quota of votes per seat.

If there are 650,000 valid votes cast, then a party needs to get 10,000 votes to get one seat. If there are 325,000 votes cast, then a party needs 5,000 votes to get a seat.

For joinder lists, GECOM clarified that the total votes received by each party in the combination are divided by the quota to determine the allocation of seats within the combination.

So if the joinder wins seats, then those seats must be distributed to each party in the joinder based on a similar mathematical calculation.

If one seat is allocated to the joinder, then a representative from the party with the highest number of votes in that joinder will occupy the seat in the National Assembly. If the joinder earns more than one seat, then the seats will be similarly distributed amongst the other parties based on their individual votes.

The representative of each party within the joinder who is given seats must then select persons from their specific lists to take up the seat.

In the case of a seat within the combination, the party with the largest number of surplus votes will get that unallocated seat. But if there is only one seat won by the combination, GECOM said that seat shall go to the Party that received the largest number of votes among all of the parties in the combination, pouring cold water on any plans to rotate a seat.

This decision came after major contention with the last three parties- ANUG, LJP and TNM- that joined their list to contest the 2020 elections.

But that’s not all. GECOM also said each party in the joinder retains its own Representative and Deputy Representative for the purpose of the extraction of candidates to become members of the National Assembly. Therefore, it is only the Representative or Deputy Representative of the Party who is allocated seats who can do such extractions.