Private Sector expresses confidence is GECOM for free and fair elections

Nov 23, 2011 News

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With Guyanese scheduled to go to the polls in less than a week away, the Private Sector Commission (PSC) has rejected claims that one of the contesting parties may be hatching plans to rig the 2011 elections and that the observer teams may not be credible.
During a press briefing yesterday at the Private Sector Commission’s, Waterloo Street office, the body expressed full confidence in the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to conduct free and fair elections.

Ramesh Dookhoo, Chairperson of the PSC, during the press briefing, stated that political parties have signed a Code of Conduct which governs their behaviour before, during and after these elections and unfounded claims such as those being made have a real potential to derail a peaceful process of voting.
He stressed that the Commission believes that Guyana will essentially have a peaceful elections, since “the country has matured.”
“Guyana had great elections in 2006 and it did Guyana well. For instance, companies grew exponentially. As such PSC considers the statements that are being made about GECOM to be highly irresponsible. GECOM is a world class elections body,” Dookhoo said.
He noted that the Commission wants a non-violent post election period and the body is going to work as hard as possible to achieve that with the law enforcement agencies, Government and all the political parties.
The Commission has made overtures to the presidential candidates of the contesting political parties to do a peace message on Elections night, requesting Guyana to accept the results of the elections and let there be peace.
The Commission, led by its Governance on Security Committee members, Ian Caesar, Kumar Ramnauth, Clinton Williams and  Major General (Ret’d) Norman Mc Lean, has been accredited observers for the elections.
The PSC will be playing an integral role in ensuring a peaceful and orderly election period. The Commission is teaming up with the Guyana Police Force and through its operation centre will be monitoring the proceedings.
According to McLean, the Commission was engaged in a meeting with the Commissioner of Police and top ranking officers recently and was impressed with the organization and detail already covered for the elections.
“The police are properly prepared and ready to discharge their duties fairly and impartially. We made offers to the police to help in any way possible. Some of the businesses are going to be giving the police some assistance, such as transportation,” McLean said.
The PSC’s operations centre will begin operation on Saturday and will be manned 24 hours daily, until things are fully cleared and the body is satisfied that things are the way they should be.
The operation centre will be equipped with maps of the different electoral districts, status boards, and preparation of plans with communications for persons who will be going out to see what is taking place.
“We will also be linked to the police command centre and Electoral Assistance Bureau, GAPSO, GCCI and GMSA, as we did the last time to be well prepared to monitor what is going on. We are prepared, if things go array, that we can call on the political leadership as we did the last time as well the Commissioner, Chief-of-Staff and other important persons in ensuring we have a peaceful and fair operation for elections,” he stressed.
McLean emphasised that the police have indicated quite clearly that they have gotten an increased presence on the streets. The Police Commissioner has also agreed to have police boxes around, something that is usually done during the Christmas season.
In addition, the Guyana Association of Private Security Organisations has 12,000 members who are also going to be “eyes and ears” to report issues to the police, ensuring their presence is effective on the road. Moreover, each polling station will have someone in uniform, be it a police, Rural Constable, security constable, Special Constable or somebody who is representative of law enforcement.
According to Dookhoo, “We believe that elections day should be a holiday, we have said this to the Minister of Home Affairs and other government officials. We support the recent call by one section of the Trade Union movement to make elections day a holiday.”
According to Kit Nascimento, Chairperson of the press briefing, the operation centre will have excellent flow of information. He assured that if the media gets a report that concerns them, the operation centre could assist in the provision of information.
He noted that everyone has a major responsibility to see that the elections are conducted in a good order, and the media share that responsibility.
“From experience in the past, we found that difficulties occurred when the media speculate on the basis of having achieved information on a minimum number of results. We know that it is your legitimate right to report accurately the information that is being made available,” he added.
Nascimento explained that in the United States, the media often report results via exit poll long before the official results are announced. However, “Guyana is not that sophisticated as yet.” There were instances in the past when the operation centre received a lot of calls about speculation that was leading to public concerns, Nascimento stated. He noted that the PSC is looking forward to the media behaving responsibly.

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