AFC calls on GECOM to pronounce on party’s Code of Conduct

Nov 05, 2011 News

– Notes stakeholders should freely exercise right to vote without fear or intimidation
The Alliance For Change (AFC) is calling on Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to incorporate and pronounce on the party’s recommendations to its code of conduct.
According to Presidential Candidate of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan, the party notes that the Commission should not be seen to promulgate a code and then proceed to stand aloof of all of its infractions both in letter and spirit.

AFC’s Presidential Candidate Khemraj Ramjattan

“The Commission must honour its referee role enshrined in the constitution to ensure a level playing field for all political contenders.”
To date the party has not heard from the Commission on this very pivotal facet of the concerns and recommendations, Ramjattan said. Ever since the AFC Campaign Financing Motion was raised in the National Assembly by Ms Sheila Holder, the AFC has sought to articulate its confusion with the PPP’s abuse of the State media to peddle its propaganda, he added.
“A transparent process for the conduct of Regional and General Elections in 2011 requires that Government authorities, officials of the Guyana Elections Commission, political parties and candidates share responsibility for creating a level playing field for all contesting political parties where electors are able to freely exercise the right to vote without fear or intimidation on Election Day….
“In recognising that the National Communications Network Inc. belongs to the people of Guyana, be it resolved that the State media, both print and electronic, must not be relegated as a propaganda tool for any one political contender but must rather be availed to all political parties equitably,” Ramjattan emphatically said.
Further, he said, it was recommended by the AFC that any meaningful code of conduct should avoid “subjecting any representative/member of the media to individual ridicule or censure in the execution of their duties which involves refraining from directly or indirectly threatening, coercing, or otherwise subjecting to duress any media owner, publisher, manager or editor.”
“We knew then and now that this was important. Jadgeo’s disgraceful outbursts deeming Guyana’s independent media, perhaps among the most vibrant in the Caribbean, as vultures and carrion crows, has vindicated this concern and recommendation.” He noted.
Ramjattan further said that the AFC condemns the PPP’s address against the opposition for not signing the GECOM code of conduct while flouting the very fundamentals of decency which ought to be prevalent in any code of conduct.
In GECOM’s original code signed by the PPP, it was vowed “Our Party’s opposition to and rejection of the use of violence and intimidation or plans of this nature by any of our members or supporters as a means of expressing political support or furthering political objectives”.
“Yet there are widespread reports of PPP supporters in Linden, Diamond and Berbice employing abusive and threatening tactics calculated to intimidate AFC activists and supporters propagating the message of change,” Ramjattan declared.