By Kurt Campbell

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Just a few weeks ago, more than 20 political parties signalled their intention to contest Guyana’s 2025 General and Regional Elections. Yet, when Nomination Day closed at the Umana Yana on Monday, only seven parties were left in the race.

It’s a striking drop but not a surprising one as many last-minute partnerships among the opposition benches were solidified leaving the seven parties. They are: A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), the Assembly for Liberty and Prosperity (ALP), Alliance For Change (AFC), the Forward Guyana Movement, We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) and the Horizon and Star Party.

But are the other parties really out the race? The answer is no and most if not all will still be facing voters as collaborators in alliances.

For example, Azruddin Mohamed’s WIN and Dr. Mark France’s ANUG have decided they stand a better chance together than apart. The same is true for Forward Guyana, led by Amanza Walton-Desir, which has linked arms with V-PAC’s Dorwain Bess and Nigel London of The People’s Movement, presenting themselves not as rivals but “co-builders” of an alternative vision.

The AFC under Nigel Hughes has joined forces with Sherwyn Downer’s United Workers Party, while the PNC-led APNU has paired up with the Working People’s Alliance in hopes of consolidating their base.

Meanwhile, familiar faces from the old APNU+AFC administration – Jaipaul Sharma of the Equal Rights and Justice Party and Tabitha Sarabo-Halley of the Guyana Nation Builders Movement – have found new homes within the AFC and WIN camps, respectively.

These mergers are in fact not the formal Joinder of Lists.

Once the submitted lists of candidates are approved, two or more parties can still combine their lists and the total votes they all received will determine how many seats they get and and how they will share that seat/s. It’s worth noting that this arrangement affects only how seats are divided up – not how you vote. Voters will still mark an ‘X’ for their preferred single list on Election Day.

Still standing alone for now is the ALP, led by Simona Broomes, and the incumbent PPP/C. Though Broomes has yet to announce any formal collaboration, the door remains open for a Joinder of Lists in the days ahead.

A total of 718,715 people are registered to vote.

The Guyana Elections Commission has hailed Monday’s Nomination Day as a success – peaceful, festive, and orderly. Now, the real work begins: verifying lists, checking nominators, and ensuring every candidate ticks the boxes for eligibility. By midnight, parties will know if they need to fix any defects, and if they need to, they will have just 24 hours to do so.

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New parties join APNU coalition 

Darren Wills of Fight for All attempted to participate in Nomination Day, but according to GECOM Commissioner Sase Gunraj, he has “No list, no symbol, no game.”