–slams organisation for lack of transparency, accountability

ALTHOUGH the Guyana Press Association (GPA) was scheduled to have elections three years ago, in a shocking turn of events, the organisation has also failed to release the list of eligible voters despite being a few days away from the long overdue elections.

Several editors from media agencies across the country issued a statement, on Thursday, calling out the GPA for its lack of transparency and accountability.

The representatives were from the News Room Guyana, LRTV (Berbice), Info10 (Linden), Guyana Standard, National Communications Network, Guyana Times, MTV News Update, Inews, TVG News and the Guyana Chronicle.

According to the statement: “…[We] are working members of the media in Guyana, and have serious concerns regarding the upcoming Annual General Meeting of the Guyana Press Association (GPA) on May 14, 2023 at the Theatre Guild, particularly about membership and the voter’s list.”

It further underlined the fact that in circumstances where dues were not paid, the GPA maintains a policy of registering members and collecting their dues on Election Day.

New members were welcome to join and pay the necessary dues as long as they met the requirements for eligibility to vote, which is three years of media employment.

The statement then went on to read: “This year, the GPA Executive abandoned that convention and set May 6 as the date for the payment of dues for EXISTING members and have said registration of new members will be approved by the new executive.”

Moreover, it was said that many media workers who have been working in the field for three years or longer and want to vote are basically denied membership as a result of this decision.
“Therefore, in the interest of transparency and accountability, to ensure the integrity of the GPA, and to eliminate any concerns about the credibility of the list of voters, we call on the GPA Executive, currently made up of four members – Nazima Raghubir, Denis Chabrol, Svetala Marshall and Rawle Toney – to release immediately the list of all members eligible to vote at the elections on May 14, 2023” the release said.