A new low in this election campaign was registered on Saturday on the Essequibo Coast with the slinging up of effigies of the presidential and prime ministerial candidates of the APNU+AFC. With the stakes so high, it is evident that temperatures will rise further as the campaign progresses and the situation must be immediately tamped down. Both major contestants will know that their supporters can get carried away in the heat of the moment and do things that are entirely beyond the pale. Neither the PPP/C nor APNU+AFC can claim unawareness of this. What is essential, therefore, is that both major contestants make an immediate effort to appeal to their supporters to desist from actions that can inflame tensions. Instead of sanctimoniously and separately decrying acts of destruction of their campaign paraphernalia, the PPP/C and APNU+AFC must immediately hold a joint forum to condemn acts such as the slinging up of the effigies and to call upon supporters to desist from such activities. The slinging up of effigies and their burning have been used to target parties here before so the present contestants should be sensitive to this and do what is right.
Amid the spate of destruction, the police force appears incapable of a salutary intervention. By this time, the police should have been able to press charges against any number of persons for the destruction of campaign material and for threatening behaviour. In societies governed by law and order the risk of penalties is a deterrent that helps to limit such excesses. Unfortunately, the public image of the Guyana Police Force has been so eroded over the years that there is little respect for the rule of law and the police have underlined this by being unable to make arrests and lay charges.
Then there is the Guyana Elections Commission. While there is no statutory responsibility on its part to ensure a clean and peaceful campaign, it has arrogated such matters to itself and at last word there was a code of conduct on the table for the parties to sign. With just three weeks before the elections, the unruly horses have already bolted from the stable leaving the conditions ripe for effigies and other abominations. The time for a peace pact/code of conduct is now. Why GECOM bothered first with a code of conduct for the media is puzzling. Weeks after the mainstream media signed on to the code by which they are now being judged by GECOM’s Media Monitoring Unit, the politicians are still to do likewise. It has been pointed out time and again to GECOM and other stakeholders that it makes little sense for the media to be asked to uphold a certain standard if politicians behave completely without propriety on the platform.
What has also been ignored by the decision makers is that there is a raging election campaign 24/7 on social media without any of the restraints that the established media face or feel obliged to follow. It was on social media that the first images of lynchings surfaced and they triggered the usual one-sided invectives which are feeding into people’s views about the elections and where culpability for these acts lie. This is all the more reason why the main contestants in this election should issue joint messages as these will also be widely circulated on social media and will have some opportunity to positively influence the campaign and to make it clear that neither side condones acts such as the stringing up of the lynching effigies.
It is clear that one of the campaign strategies of the PPP/C has been to stir up old animosities. This was on full display on March 8 at Port Mourant in the presentation by former President Jagdeo which has now unfortunately received the full blessing of Cabinet, according to Cabinet Secretary Dr Luncheon. The charged race-based language particularly on the PPP/C platform must be reeled back in. The ruling party has a special responsibility to ensure that it sets the standard for an issues-based campaign shorn of dangerous invective. It must ensure that Mr Jagdeo in particular is made aware of this.