…monitors to be deployed to political meetings, rallies to dissuade the use of language and action to incite racial hostility
THE Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) on Saturday concluded a two-day training workshop for part-time media and elections campaign monitors who will be deployed to monitor political meetings, campaigns, rallies countrywide. This is to dissuade the use of any language or action aimed at inciting or exciting racial hostility or ill-will which can result in ethnic conflict. The training and deployment of the monitors is also aimed at ensuring that the environment before, during and after the elections is free from fear and intimidation.

The participants were informed of the constitutional mandate of the ERC, specially examining the Constitution (Amendment) (No.2) Act 2000, the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act No. 1 of 2001, and the Racial Hostility (Amendment) Act No. 9 of 2002.

The two-day training workshop at the Georgetown Club, Camp Street Georgetown catered for the training of some 62 monitors from Regions One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Nine and Ten. During the opening ceremony on Friday, ERC Chairman Bishop Juan Edghill said such training was never before done on such magnitude.

The Chairman referred the participants to the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act and the Racial Hostility (Amendment) Act, explaining that a politician or anyone who preaches race hate should not and will not be allowed to serve in any elected office in Guyana.

Cautioning monitors to be professional in their duties, the chairman outlined ten points which monitors should adhere to, including;

– Monitors should not provide any political party, the media or any person, apart from the head of the ERC Media Monitoring Unit, with copies of the tape made of any political meeting or with the original tape, whether in whole or part
– Monitors should not be political activists working in the interest of any political party
– Monitors should not be working for or on behalf of any political party in their mobilisation or hold any office in any political party
– Monitors cannot have their names appear on the list of candidates of any political party
– Monitors are not peacemakers and are not to become involved in any incident at any political meeting or campaign.
– While the ERC should have collaboration with all legal institutions, monitors are not to serve as intelligence officer for these institutions.

Monitors were also cautioned that should there be an incident leading to a trial either by the ERC or any court with jurisdiction to act in Guyana, monitors must be prepared to give sworn testimony, and as such, recordings of meetings or rallies must not be altered or tampered with in any manner.

Also, monitors will not be authorised to speak on behalf of the ERC.

Other areas covered during the training include the monitoring process, understanding the use of language in the political context, and creating the settings for political meetings.

“The ERC wishes to assure all Guyanese that it is doing everything within its constitutional mandate to ensure that the 2011 Elections Campaigns will attain a higher standard than what was achieved during 2006,” according to a release by the ERC.

The process of identifying monitors entailed public advertising in all four daily newspapers calling for applicants from various regions.  Applicants were shortlisted, invited to attend training, underwent an evaluation, then interviewed before appointment.

Arrangements are being made to train monitors for Regions Seven and Eight.