CHAIRMAN of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Mr. Ramesh Dookhoo, has called for members of the private sector to support the Guyana Elections Commission and become volunteers to assist the process of the upcoming general elections.
He made these remarks at the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (GCCI) 121st Annual General Meeting (AGM), last Thursday, at Duke Lodge.
According to him, the PSC is an accredited observer body for the elections, expected to be held in August, and can make a contribution to stability during this period.
Dookhoo said stability can easily be undermined and all stakeholders have a responsibility to ensure that negative elements do not prevail during this period, particularly considering Guyana’s history with violence when elections come around. “Members of the civil society must guard against this,” he said.
The PSC Chairman contends that the role of civil society is diverse; and in the context of general elections, it can play a role in strengthening electoral democracy.
In an invited comment, Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Dr. Steve Surujbally, commended the forward approach of the PSC in lending support to ensure free and fair elections.
He said, “Any number of persons to be auxiliary to GECOM is welcome, and the PSC has always been in the front, offering its assistance to the Commission.”
Surujbally added that GECOM and the PSC are engaged regularly on matters of mutual interest, as it relates to this year’s general elections.
He agreed that civil society does have a role in supporting the process of nation-building.

MMU Support

Additionally, like the civil society, the GECOM Chairman contends that the independent Media Monitoring Unit (MMU) will also support the efficient conduct of the general elections process.
The MMU was working with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and ceased operations in July last year, but is expected to be resuscitated.
Surujbally noted that a letter to the same effect – a reminder – has been sent to the Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, but so far no there has been no word on having the MMU back on stream.
Surujbally stressed that the value of the MMU cannot be overstated.
The MMU was funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The unit was staffed by six individuals employed on a contractual basis, with the understanding that the project could cease, dependent on various factors.
The role of the unit was to monitor the output of media houses and address any breaches of the Media Code of Conduct. The MMU had revised the Media Code of Conduct and based its operations on the new document.
Any breach was noted and brought to the attention of the media house in an effort to promote responsible practices within the media corps – in line with the unit’s objective.
According to the GECOM Chairman, the success of the 2006 elections process was largely due to the success of the MMU, which ensured that “the media behaved itself.”
He explained that having a code of conduct developed by the media houses themselves – a type of self-regulation – worked better than having legislations imposed.
Surujbally contended that the balance in coverage contributed to the elections process being a peaceful one.
In a report by the MMU after the 2006 election, it said, “The first ten days after nomination were remarkable in some respects for all media houses. In this period, the Media Monitoring Unit failed to find any grievous breach of the Media Code of Conduct in terms of content. In terms of balance, there was, in the majority of cases, a most welcome and in some cases almost startling shift towards equitable coverage.”
It added that altogether, the performance of the media was creditable and was  vastly different from what was seen in 2001.