IN addition to the Organisation of American States (OAS) and the Carter Centre, four other international groups have confirmed that they will field election observer missions for the May 11 General and Regional Elections.Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS) Dr Roger Luncheon, yesterday, at a news conference at the Office of the President, disclosed that the Commonwealth, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the United Nations and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) have accepted Central Government’s invitation to act as electoral observers.
The Governments of South Africa and India, which were also invited, unfortunately have not responded favourably to the invitation.
Dr Luncheon explained that while Central Government had indicated an interest in having the international observers in Guyana a few weeks ahead of the May 11 polls, as well as having them remain sometime after the elections, these objectives have not been met.
Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Dr Steve Surujbally, in an invited comment yesterday, told the Guyana Chronicle that once the international observers are in, they will be accredited by the Commission.
Additionally, 10 local groups have indicated an interest in acting as election observers and they include representatives from the United States of America Embassy, the British and Canadian High Commissions, the European Union (EU) country office, the Private Sector Commission (PSC), the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Blue Caps, the International Republic Institute (IRI), the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) and the Electoral Assistance Bureau (EAB). The latter received the endorsement of the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana (CIOG) on Wednesday, when it announced that it will be working with the EAB in the monitoring of the elections.
The GECOM Chairman maintained that all observers, local and foreign, will be required to sign on to certain protocols before they are accredited as observers.
The Guyana Chronicle was able to get an exclusive look at these protocols which outline the roles and functions of the observer groups.
Relative to foreign observers, the missions, according to the protocol, will be expected to adhere to more than 35 guidelines. In addition to the guidelines, the rights and privileges of accredited election observer groups were also outlined in the protocol.
Similar rights and guidelines apply to local observer groups, which were detailed in a separate document seen by this newspaper.
Under the Election Law (Amendment) Act No. 15 of 2000, Section 20 states that: “The Commission may approve of local organisations observing the democratic process involved in any election provided such organisations fulfill such conditions as may be stipulated by the Commission.”
Both protocols, for foreign and local observer groups, state clearly that if GECOM considers that an observer group “wilfully, 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 its accreditation from the individual errant observer or even from the entire observer mission.

By Vanessa Narine