Spokespersons for the foreign observer missions when contacted by Stabroek News said that they continued meeting with stakeholders yesterday while staff was deployed to various parts of the country for today’s polls. The local Electoral Assistance Bureau (EAB) said that its observers will cover over 90% of polling stations and held a final briefing yesterday.
Press officer for the Organization of America States Electoral Observation Mission (OAS/EOM), John Enright said that the mission continued to meet with stakeholders yesterday but a comprehensive assessment of the process will not be done until after the polls.
And in a statement, Professor Gordon Shirley, Chief of Mission for the OAS\EOM, urged all actors in the electoral process to demonstrate responsible leadership. “I encourage all political actors to publicly call upon their supporters to remain calm and respectful and to display restraint and tolerance in these final days leading to the Monday November 28, 2011 general and regional elections,” he said.
“I also wish to remind political parties, and their candidates and supporters, to adhere to the Code of Conduct that the political parties have all signed and agreed to, and to promote peace and good order on elections day and the days that will follow”, said Professor Shirley. “I trust that all interveners will conduct themselves in compliance with all electoral laws and regulations,” he added.
The OAS\EOM has fielded 25 observers from 14 countries throughout Guyana for today’s polls. “Our observers have been deployed and will be present in 9 of the country’s 10 administrative regions until the close of all polling places,” said Professor Shirley. OAS Assistant Secretary-General, Albert Ramdin is also in Guyana as a “political person” and he told Stabroek News that his presence signifies that he OAS considers the election process important.
Meantime, press officer for the Commonwealth observer group, Geraldine Goh told Stabroek News that they visited the rallies on Saturday night and have been speaking to stakeholders. She too said that a comprehensive assessment would be done after the polls.
EAB spokesman, Father Malcolm Rodrigues told Stabroek News that an issue was the non-availability of voters’ lists at some polling stations. He said that this could possibly hinder some from voting.
He also pointed out that there has been no “testing of the list” – an objective evaluation of the list to check whether there were duplications of voters’ names or whether a sampling resided in an area identified. He explained that the EAB had done in-house and field checks in the past but was unable to do so for this elections because of the lack of funds. It would have been good to do so again this time, he noted.
Rodrigues also lamented that there were rumours flying around that upon checking, turned out not to be true.
