GWR looking to raise funds for election day initiative

[www.inewsguyana.com] – The Guyana Women’s Roundtable Committee (GWR) has organized another civic education programme in the run up to the May 11 elections –this time in the form of a fund-raising dinner at the Pegasus Hotel set for Monday evening, May 04 at 19:00hrs.

The GWR has invited Guyanese born Marcia Johnson Blanco, Co- Director, Voting Rights Project, Assistant Professor of Law in the United States as its guest speaker for the event on May 4, 2015.

Funds raised will be used for two buses to transport persons to polling stations in regions 3 and 4 between the hours of 6:00 hrs to 12: 00 noon on May 11.

Speaking to iNews, Professor Blanco explained that she was invited, “to talk about how Guyanese women could engage and work with communities to get them out to vote, to talk about why voting matters, the value of the vote and what experiences I have learned from my work in the United States that can be applied to Guyana.”

Professor Blanco believes that the biggest mistake the electorate continues to make is this idea that, “my vote does not count; however she noted that this notion is misleading in any democracy.

“Your vote counts and it counts both ways, it counts when you vote and it counts if you don’t vote, cause if you don’t vote then you’re giving away your voice and what people also get confused about is that my change may not come after my one vote but if I don’t keep engaging, if I don’t keep talking to the politicians about what I want then nothing is going to change, it’s not just about a single vote; it’s about continuous engagement in your communities,” she emphasized.

The Guyanese born United States based Attorney-at-law added that after a government is elected to office, it needs the people even more and it is up to the Guyanese people to continuously engage its elected officials so as to set their agenda and not the other way around.