THE Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) yesterday held talks with former Foreign Minister of Belize, Ms Lisa Shoman, in her capacity as a representative of the Organisation of American States (OAS), following her arrival in Guyana in relation to the OAS fielding an electoral observer mission for the upcoming polls.Shoman indicated that the OAS intends to field a team of about a dozen observers, who will be strategically placed across the country during Election Day.

The OAS election observers are expected to be in Guyana on May 5th, and are expected to remain here for some time after Election Day.

Shoman was selected as the head of the OAS Election Observer Mission after OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza and the Permanent Representative of Guyana to that organisation, Ambassador Bayney Karran, signed an agreement to field the electoral observer mission last week.

Ambassador Shoman, designated for the position by Mr Insulza, has been a member of the Senate of Belize since 2009. Appointed foreign minister of her country in 2007, she had previously served concurrently as Ambassador to the United States and Permanent Representative of Belize to the OAS.

AGREEMENT SIGNED
During Shoman’s yesterday meeting with GECOM, she and Dr Surujbally signed an Electoral Observation Process Agreement compiled by the OAS to establish conditions under which the electoral observation will be carried out.

After that signing, Dr Surujbally took opportunity to brief the OAS representative on GECOM’s current state of preparedness to conduct efficient and transparent elections. He indicated that GECOM has already written the eight political parties contesting the May 11 General and Regional Elections to inform them of their eligibility; has already finalised all the Polling Stations to be utilised on Election Day; and is currently engaged in assiduously conducting refresher training of Polling Day staff.

Dr Surujbally also noted that GECOM’s civic and voter education programme is well underway with a variety of advertisements, infomercials, and public service announcements being published in the print and electronic media daily.

He was keen to point out that GECOM’s television infomercials cater for persons living with hearing disabilities by utilising sign language.

Dr Surujbally assured that GECOM is committed to working within the guidelines of the agreement signed, and looks forward to positive electoral observation reportage from the OAS.

PROTOCOLS
GECOM has said that all observers, local and foreign, will be required to sign onto certain protocols before they are accredited as observers.

Relative to foreign observers, the missions, according to the protocol seen by the Guyana Chronicle, will be expected to adhere to more than 35 guidelines. In addition to the guidelines, the rights and privileges of accredited election observer groups have also been outlined in the protocol.

Similar rights and guidelines apply to local observer groups, but those were detailed in a separate document.
The protocols for both foreign and local observer groups state clearly that if GECOM considers that an observer group has “willfully, without restraint, overtly and/or with malice aforethought breached the modus operandi and protocols” outlined by the Commission, GECOM has the authority to, and may rescind/ withdraw its accreditation from the individual errant observer, or even from the entire observer mission.

Ms Shoman is expected to meet with the presidential candidates, civil society representatives, and representatives of the international community in Guyana.

The OAS has indicated that it will deploy a team of experts and observers to witness the elections, and to analyse specific aspects of the electoral process — such as electoral organisation, campaign financing, and the political participation of men and women.

The traditional observer missions, aside from the OAS, include the Commonwealth, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).

The United Nations and the Commonwealth have already fielded needs assessment missions to Guyana, while representatives from the Carter Centre have fielded a second team for similar purposes.

CARICOM and UNASUR are still to confirm their presence in Guyana as observers, as are the governments of South Africa and India, which were also invited to field missions ahead of the May 11 General and Regional Elections.