… say at least one private entity should be involved
The major opposition PPP/C and seven of the other parties- that contested the March 2 election are vehemently objecting to the decision of GECOM to allocate the livestreaming responsibility for the count, which is supposed to begin on Wednesday morning at 8:00h, to the state run National Broadcasting Network (NCN) working in conjunction with staff from the GECOM Secretariat.
They are insisting that at least one private broadcasting entity should be involved also with the livestreaming.
The state media as a whole has been giving very partisan, sycophantic coverage to the PNC-led APNU/AFC government since they took office but this has been ratcheted up after the Elections process ground to a halt when GECOM RO Mingo corrupted the tabulation process on March 4, in favour of the coalition.
This led to the acceptance by GECOM Commission that there needed a recount of the ballots to be conducted and livestreamed to the public to instill some confidence in the process after the betrayal by RO Mingo.
Typical of the blatant bias by the state media would be the editorial yesterday of the Chronicle which insisted that the coalition’s demand for an audit of the recount be an audit had been accepted by the Chair when in fact it was not.
The Opposition parties believe that to place sole responsibility for a process that demands integrity and impartiality cannot be at the sole discretion of a proven biased entity. At a minimum, they insist the government mouthpiece should be joined by one of the independent broadcasting entities that have the capability to conduct the livestreaming.
