THE Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) of the Catholic Church is launching a campaign-monitoring initiative to monitor the content of political speeches at public meetings of political parties in the final stages of the run-up to general and regional elections on May 11.  The purpose of the initiative is to:

• increase public/Catholic participation in an important element of the democratic process
• identify infringements/breaches of the Code of Conduct for political parties, expected to be signed shortly
• deter inflammatory and reckless political campaign speeches in a sensitive period.

This initiative is all the more important given the recent display of irresponsible, reckless and vulgar behaviour on the Essequibo Coast with lynched effigies of the Opposition’s presidential and prime ministerial candidates being placed on a utility pole. Such crass public displays are highly inflammatory and insensitive during national elections and can only serve to stoke existing political and ethnic tensions.

The JPC is calling for volunteers from members of the public, especially Catholics, to implement this initiative. Volunteers will attend public meetings, fill out a prepared campaign-monitoring form, and forward these to the JPC for later analysis and public release.

Persons who are interested in volunteering are hereby invited to contact us immediately at jpc.guyana@gmail.com. The monitoring form can be downloaded on our website http://jpcgy.webs.com/

Completed forms can be scanned and emailed to jpc.guyana@gmail.com or hard copies can be delivered to Bishop’s Office, 27 Brickdam within 24 hours of the date of the meeting monitored.