By Johann Earle
Head of the Commonwealth Observer Mission Denis Marshall says the group has concluded that Monday’s general elections represented a further strengthening of the democratic processes but the playing field for the poll campaign was not level, given that state resources, including state media, were used in the interest of the ruling party.
He was speaking at a press briefing held at the Cara Lodge yesterday where he presented the group’s main findings in an interim statement for its observing of the 2011 general and regional elections in Guyana on Monday. The Commonwealth team leader also identified the length of the results tabulation process and breaches in both the media and political parties’ codes of conduct as bugbears to the elections.
“The [November 28, 2011] elections were competitive, and basic freedoms of association, assembly and movement were