Parties sign election Code of Conduct

– urged to adhere to it

BY GOMATIE GANGADIN

The Political Parties Code of Conduct was signed by all eight parties contesting the General and Regional Elections on Wednesday afternoon at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) building on High Street, Kingston, Georgetown.

The signing of the Code of Conduct comes at a time when there are mounting concerns about both the language and some of the messages being sent by political leaders on the platforms as they contest ahead of the May 11 polls.

The signing also took place two weeks from polling day with some saying that it will have minimal impact on the state of affairs going forward.

The parties which signed onto the Code of Conduct were the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC), The United Force (TUF), the Healing the Nation Theocracy Party, the United Republican Party, the Independent Party, the National Independent Party and the Organisation of the Victory of the People Party.

Delivering the key remarks was Chairman of the Commission, Dr Steve Surujbally who told the parties that the event was of historic proportion, while noting that the document would serve as a reinforcement of the desire of having political maturity.

“Today we have come together to create another red letter day. Notwithstanding the fact that we have carried out a similar exercise as a preparation for the 2011 General and Regional elections, we must recognise today also as an occasion of historic proportions; a day which will be long remembered by the political analysts of our country; a day which reflects the reinforcement of the desire to exhibit political maturity. This day begins the process in which political differences are consciously cast aside,” he told the parties.

Dr Surujbally told the representative that by placing their signatures on the document, they are in effect, placing the nation first, stating that “you are demonstrating your willingness, your preparedness, your commitment to adhere to the rules of the Code of Conduct.”

According to Chairman, while the document might be a late in coming, given the fact that elections are mere days away, decency did not have an expiry date and the document served to ensure that that decency is maintained explicitly expressing that the document must be seen as the “holy grail of campaigning.” He said that the Political Parties’ Code of Conduct signalled the path to a free, fair and credible election.

Further, Surujbally told the  leaders of the parties that the document was not born out of an illusion or by a flight by night process, but was rather, out of the need for such a document to monitor the campaigning activities of the parties and it was the “right and correct” thing to do.

According to him, the signing to the document has now elevated all to a moral high ground, since the Code could not be faulted and it was not a punitive one. “It is very straight forward… peace and order, compliance with electoral laws and respect for the parties and the electorate are of paramount importance… GECOM must not be placed in a position to manage elections in an environment of hostility and unnecessary vulgarity. We are here to heal,” he said.

Meanwhile, the British High Commissioner to Guyana, Greg Quinn; US Charge d’ Affaires to Guyana, Bryan Hunt and Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana, Dr Nicole Giles all praised the move by the parties and by GECOM to have the official signing onto the Code of Conduct. They noted that they expect that the campaigns will now be more focused on issues and not on personalities in the Opposite camp.

“We expect all of the political parties to live up to the Code of Conduct which they have signed onto. We expect them to uphold those standards,” Hunt said.

The diplomatic community has been calling for the political parties to sign onto the code for weeks now.