MOST Guyanese will welcome the sight of the seven international bodies that are being invited to monitor Guyana’s upcoming General Elections.
CARICOM, the Commonwealth, United Nations, Organization of American States (OAS), European Union, UNASUR and The  Carter Centre.
Most Guyanese will also welcome the re-opening of the Media Monitoring Unit (MMU) which was reportedly closed last year after government wrote the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to stop its funding.. In 2006, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) launched a 15-member independent MMU to help monitor media houses coverage of that year’s polls.
The MMU’s work includes the monitoring of every newspaper, talk-show and call-in programme and should include the blog sites of Stabroek and Kaieteur News as well.
Extreme vigilance must be an imperative at the airport and other ports of entry to Guyana because most Guyanese know that some political trouble makers come to Guyana around election time to create mayhem and disturbances and when all hell breaks loose, they hop on a flight or exit at other ports and disappear.
Most Guyanese would want to see the process being fair and balanced and to ensure transparency where there should be no street violence like that of the past when one political party lost at the polls  and as a result innocent citizens were either injured, maimed, disfigured and/or killed.
General Elections were tentatively scheduled for mid-October, but GECOM re-opened the Claims and Objections period during which over 7,000 persons registered.
This is a great move on the part of politicians to ensure that Guyanese are enfranchised, who may choose to vote or not.
A verification process to ensure no duplication and weed out any possibility of fraud will be conducted on the 7,000-plus names before the voters’ list is prepared.
This verification process must be in the news through newspapers and TV to let every Guyanese know what is going on until elections are over and it must be done by all of those that are involved in the election process at GECOM.Since many on the opposite side see Mr.Surujbally as a link to PPP/C.
All at GECOM must speak with one voice to the entire population and the world at large, so no one can cry after the fact that the head of GECOM was in cahoots with the PPP/C.
Let elections be free, fair, transparent and non-violent and the loser must take to the airwaves immediately after election results are out to congratulate the winner.