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Diplomatic utterances on elections worry President

Jan 26, 2011 News

– has problem with expression of “vested interest”

Recent utterances of “vested interest” in Guyana’s upcoming General Elections is worrying President Bharat Jagdeo.
The Guyanese leader said that while he welcomes foreign assistance in the election process, he has a problem with the term “vested interest” that was recently uttered by a foreign diplomat.
“Just recently I saw word coming out of a mission here that they had vested interest in our elections. Now, you can have interest… but I’m afraid of what vested interest has done to our people, historically, and no foreigner should have vested interest in our internal affairs…this vested interest concerns me,” the President stated yesterday during an address to officers of the Guyana Defence Force.
The President was apparently referring to a recent media report, which quoted British High Commissioner, Simon Bond, as saying that his country was paying keen attention to the upcoming General Elections in Guyana.
Previous elections have been characterised by the influence of foreign input due to the dependence on outside funding.
Many are convinced that it was the intervention of the Carter Center headed by former US President, Jimmy Carter, and influence from other overseas entities that led to the return to democratic elections in Guyana in 1992, to the benefit of the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic.
The aftermath of those elections and the subsequent one, was marked by violence, which led to the intervention of CARICOM.
President Jagdeo urged that this year Guyanese must break with the traditions of the past.
“Globally, people always think of an election year as a year characterized by violence. They have come to think of Guyanese in that way and we need to change that perception,” Jagdeo stated.
He pointed to the 2006 General Elections for the peaceful nature in which it was conducted and urged the soldiers to ensure that that was no fluke.
The Head of State said that he has already issued orders to the police to ensure that they are totally prepared for any attempt at stirring up violence during the upcoming General Elections, which is expected to be conducted in a few months’ time.
“We are going to take strong action against those who violate our constitution,” Jagdeo warned.
He referred to the Ethnic Relations Commission, which was constitutionally set up, separate from the executive, to deal with situations that could give rise to violence at election time.
“They have powers to disbar political parties that use people’s children, their religion and race as campaigning tools, and we must never allow that to happen in this country – that people should feel dehumanized – because at election time they’ve been characterized in camps because of their political beliefs,” the President said.
“And if there are some people who think they can use this to create violence – because it’s not ordinary people, it’s orchestrated ones that created the violence – we want to come down hard on them,” he added.
Jagdeo stated that the security forces will work aggressively to ensure that a competitive election is delivered, since this is the nature of global democracy.

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