The Guyana Consumers Association (GCA) has written to the Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) today, advocating that live TV broadcast of the elections recount be done in order to lend credibility to the process.
In its correspondence to the Chair, the consumer body said that having the recount televised would allow the entire Guyanese population to have a close-up view of the proceedings.
General and Regional Elections were held on March 2, 2020, and, to date, there has been no declaration of a winner. In fact, the electoral process has been marred by a number of irregularities, which some stakeholders argue are clear attempts at rigging.
There were 479,453 ballots cast at the 2020 general elections.
See full letter below:
Her Honour Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh
Chairman, Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM)
High Street
Kingston
Georgetown.
Dear Madam Chair:
Our members and a plethora of other persons have been advocating to us that the process of the recount of the ballots of the last Elections be televised or put online so that the entire Guyanese population could have a close-up view of the entire proceedings. In televising the counting process the methodology used should be published in the print media and also from time to time during the broadcast.
The advantages of such a full broadcast of the recounting process are (i) It would involve the Guyana population in the Election process (ii) It would achieve transparency (iii) It would eliminate the usual disagreements and acrimony in which the Election affairs have been enveloped over the last month (iv) Would bring new hope to the Guyanese population and the International community that Guyana is a Democratic country working to strengthen Democracy.
Accordingly, Madam Chairman, the GCA would like to respectfully and strongly advocate that you order the proceedings and process of the forthcoming Election re-count be put on live TV broadcast.
Yours respectfully
Jainarine Deonauth M.A.
Secretary, Guyana Consumers Association (GCA)
for
Patrick P.Dial CCH, AA, JP President GCA
