Guyana Elections Commission Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally said general elections will be held sometime in November. His comments were made during the relaunch of the Media Monitoring Unit, at Hotel Tower on Friday, August 26. “My own feel on the matter is sometime in November. You know already, as we have so published, that we will be ready on the 14th of November. His Excellency, the president, will choose the most opportune time for the nation to go to the polls,” Surujbally told the gathering.
Surujbally said that, after the general and regional elections, GECOM would almost be ready for local government elections, because of a superb list – which is the best one of eligible voters possible. “It would only take another continuous registration exercise and a “C and O” (Claims and Objections) next year, and we are ready for the local government elections next year,” he said.
Guyana has not had local government elections since 1994.
Meanwhile, the MMU has since been up and running. Surujbally said it will be up and running on Monday, August 29. The objectives of the re-established MMU are:- to monitor the local media, while reporting on breaches of the principles enshrined in the 2010/2011 Media Code of Conduct; to promote higher professional standards in the local media as these relate to reporting political, electoral, governance and general social issues; to encourage equity, balance, fairness and accuracy in news reporting; and to contribute to the nurturing of an acceptably high standard of ethical journalism during the election periods.
The MMU will also be responsible for informing, in a timely manner, those who are signatories to the 2010/2011 MCC of their publication in the local media of information that is potentially harmful to the public good, and/or detrimental to the electoral processes; providing guidance and informational support, when requested, to media houses and individual practitioners of journalism; and encouraging a media environment that is conducive to the success of GECOM’s electoral work.
The MMU had been in existence since March 2001, but was closed in July 2010 following government’s refusal to support the unit closer to this year’s elections. Dr Surujbally, in his address, noted that the resuscitated unit serves as the guardian of democracy and the defender of public interests. He said earlier this year that GECOM had petitioned to have the unit reopened.
“Early this year, we began witnessing the resurgence of the publication of inciting articles/comments in the print and electronic media.
“Evidently, also, there has been an increase in public comments associated with general and regional elections 2011, some of which carry content that could lead to conflict. Everyone would agree that this is something which all of the key stakeholders should guard against relative to the maintenance of national peace and tranquillity.” The chairman said those comments pushed the commission to have the unit revived.
“We therefore wrote a letter, dated January 18, 2011, to Dr Luncheon, head of the Presidential Secretariat, advocating that the reassembling of the unit be given priority consideration. I reminded Dr Luncheon that, during our deliberations last year on the matter of the disbandment of the MMU of the Guyana Elections Commission, the understanding was that the closure was only temporary, and that government would support the resuscitation of the unit in early 2011.”
MMU reins in media
In another letter, dated June 10, 2011, Dr Surujbally said he pointed out to Dr Luncheon that “since the closure of the GECOM MMU, there was a marked upsurge in media impropriety, as was reflected in many distasteful/ mischievous utterances and writings; there seemed to be a free-for-all, no-holds- barred journalistic modus operandi emerging. The MMU had, during its existence, reined in the media’s propensity to relapse into crudeness, non- substantiation of supposed facts prior to publication, and promotion of sensationalism. In other words, the media seemed to be regressing to the pre-MMU days.” Additionally, the GECOM chairman said, several countries have taken note of Guyana’s efforts in developing an independent media monitoring entity. He stressed that revitalisation of the entity is as a result of support given by the government, political parties, the private sector, and the international development partners. Meanwhile, Dr Surujbally called for the MMU to be a permanent unit rather than one set up immediately before and after general elections.
He stressed that the re-establishment of the MMU is an important step towards ensuring that the 2011 general election is conducted in an atmosphere of civility, decency, peace, and harmony.
Meanwhile, United Nations Development Programme Resident Representative in Guyana, Carlos Del Castillo, said nobody ignores the powers residing in the media.
“The unit is operational because the press itself has approved a media code of conduct, and by doing so has agreed to have an ethical approach to this electoral process. And I think this is quite unparalleled in history to have this kind of code of conduct self-imposed by the people in the press.”
