The National Communications Network (NCN) and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Tuesday agreed to obtain approval for there to be an increase in the amount of airtime granted to political parties.
At a meeting between senior officials of NCN and GECOM Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally, the issue of broadcasting political messages by the contesting parties was discussed.
GECOM Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally
The parties discussed costs, free air time and paid broadcast.
In a release to the media, NCN said: “The meeting with GECOM was an amicable one, and ended with both parties agreeing to obtain approval for an increase in the amount of airtime allocated to political parties as well as the option of purchasing additional airtime on both radio and television.”
The move to have the airtime granted to the political parties increased came following the rejection of five minutes per week offer by NCN recently. One of the conditions of the five-minute offer is that the content must be provided to NCN’s administration at least 48 hours prior to possible airing.
The five minutes could be utilised on either television or radio.
However, NCN said: “The management of NCN reiterated their efforts to accommodate all political parties and stakeholders, including a sizeable reduction in the cost of advertising and programme time which has already been implemented.” Several political parties have decried their inability to be able to campaign freely and fairly and had lodged complaints with GECOM’s chairman who had promised to intervene. The commission’s chairman had denounced NCN’s move to allow the opposition political parties only five minutes airtime, stating that it is unreasonable and unacceptable.
Dr Surujbally added that the time allotted by the state-owned media entity is not good enough, and noted that there would be no impact on any stakeholder.
Dr Surujbally also pointed out that the requests made by the opposition were also unreasonable, noting that there were too many parties contesting the elections.
He was adamant that whatever one party gets, all other parties must also receive in terms of airtime given on the state-owned NCN for campaigning purposes.
He stressed that five minutes is insufficient to have an impact on the fairness of the electoral process. “We do not agree that five minutes is good enough,” Surujbally stated.
