The Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) on Friday commenced a two-day workshop titled “Training for Part-time Media and Elections Campaign Monitors” at the Georgetown Club to train prospective monitors to listen, observe and record the kinds and types of information being disseminated to the public at political meetings, a release from the Government Information Agency (GINA) said.
The participants are persons who applied for the post of media and electronics campaign monitors and include persons from various areas across the country.
The monitors will be expected to attend all political rallies and meetings after which they would be required to present written reports in addition to recordings and any other relevant material to the ERC.
According to the release, the workshop signals that the ERC is stepping up its campaign to ensure that all political parties adhere to the stipulated mode of conduct during this year’s elections campaign season.
And Chairman of the ERC Bishop Juan Edghill said that this is the first time that the commission will be conducting elections campaign monitoring on such a large scale in Guyana.
He noted that the ERC is of the view that not only should elections be “free and fair but it should also be free of fear.”
The monitors, Edghill stated, must make their presence known at all political rallies, meetings, etc. and cannot be political activists, volunteers for organizers of any political group or party. He added that if there are such persons among the group, they would be asked to decline the position.
He also cautioned them against providing the recordings or any other material from the meetings to any political party or the media as such materials should only be provided to the ERC, the release concluded.
