Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 22, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
The Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) should restrain himself. He should be careful not to delve into matters that do not fall under his remit.
He is the Chairman of an Elections Commission which has responsibility for the holding of elections. And rightly he feels that elections should be held in an atmosphere that is free of rancor and turbulence.
But it is not his duty to be telling anyone whether they should be attacking the media or not. While he has not named any politician but merely called for “confounded” attacks on the media to cease, his comment comes in the wake of a colourful language being used by President Jagdeo to describe sections of the media in Guyana.
The Chairman of GECOM may be concerned about the effect of exchanges on the atmosphere of the elections, but it is neither his duty nor his place to be implicitly advising anyone what they should say and what they should not say during the course of the elections.
The Guyana Elections Commission has drafted a code of conduct. If and when that code is signed it will commit the political parties to certain standards of conduct. The Commission is not going to monitor that code but will leave it to the signatories to make it self- regulating. It will merely establish the code as a guide and hope that it is complied with.
The PPP has indicated its willingness to sign the code and after its billboards were defaced, it reportedly expressed its concerns to GECOM which indicated its displeasure at what was clearly a criminal act.
The destruction of the billboards constituted a direct affront to the unsigned code of conduct. GECOM may have felt that it needed to condemn this so as to give effect to the importance of the parties signing on to the code. And of course a criminal act was involved and GECOM may have felt moved to condemn this.
It is however not a criminal act for parties to say how they feel about the media and unless the code specifically provides for no attacks on the media, GECOM should not get involved in these exchanges.
What political parties choose to do and say is their own business. The Chairman may have his own views on these matters but he should leave it at that and not get involved in chiding anyone, either directly or implicitly for what is said on a campaign.
Political parties are free to attack the media, to criticize them as they see fit. And the media is equally free to defend itself and to give their opinions on both those who attack it well as those who do not.
Should the media go on a criticism blitz is it going to be told to cease the confounded nonsense? The media in Guyana does not need the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission to offer its support.
The Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission must be mindful of his role. Also, GECOM has to be careful that it does not become the complaints authority for political parties. GECOM is not there to monitor what is said and done on the campaign trail. The Commission should therefore avoid being drawn into political squabbles because it can be turned around and used against it.
The chairman has done a fine job so far as Chairman and had the distinction of being at the helm during the 2006 elections.
What the political parties say on their platform is the responsibility of the elections observers. Their task is to monitor these aspects, not the Guyana Elections Commission.
The media is always going to come in for attack. APNU raised objections to the coverage that its meetings were being given in the Stabroek News relative to what that newspaper was giving to the AFC. The PPP launched broadsides against sections of the media, including the Stabroek News and the Kaieteur News.
This happens in all election campaigns. Things went so far in 2006 that the PPP stopped its political advertising in the Stabroek News.
The media is capable of defending itself against these charges. It does not need the Chairman of GECOM to say anything about the attacks on the media by politicians.
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
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