Press Association to hold elections in May

Mar 28, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – The Guyana Press Association on Monday announced that it will be holding its Annual General Meeting and elections in May this year.

President of the Guyana Press Association, Nazima Raghubir

The GPA’s notice comes on the same day when a letter by an anonymous writer appeared in the Guyana Chronicle questioning the legitimacy of the current GPA executive and calling on it to hold elections.  “At its most recent meeting, the executive took a decision to hold elections for a new executive in May 2023. A notice, to this effect, will be published in the print media, and a final date. All members of the association are asked to ensure that they are in good financial standing with GPA to ensure their full voting participation at this election,” the GPA said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the GPA said thanked its members for their patience over the years “as we navigated the 2020 Elections and the COVID-19 pandemic, which no doubt affected the holding of our elections.” The press body reminded that it was elected in January 2018 for a two-year term. “In January 2020, it took a decision to postpone its elections and any training until after the March 2020 General and Regional Elections. This was mainly due to the fact that many of our members were actively covering election-related activities.  However, in March, the country was faced with two crises – an electoral crisis, which spanned for approximately 5 months, and the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in the implementation of a number of restrictions, including but not limited to, public gathering,” the statement read.

It continued, “given the circumstances at the time, the executive took another decision to further postpone any meeting that would have violated the public health regulations. Notwithstanding the challenges, the GPA Executive remained active throughout this period engaging its membership on various issues. Importantly, a number of virtual workshops were executed.”

• Annual General Meeting, Elections, Guyana Chronicle, Nazima Raghubir, President of the Guyana Press Association