Guyana Press Association (GPA) President, Nazima Raghubir was yesterday re-elected to a second term following a highly contentious elections.
She defeated the only other contender for the post of Presi-dent, Neil Marks by 70 votes to 25. There was one spoilt vote. The announcement of Raghubir’s victory by Returning Officer, Attorney-at-Law Ronald Burch-Smith, was greeted with loud applause from her support group.
Other newly-elected members of the executive were Sports Journalist Rawle Toney, Vice President; Svetlana Marshall-Abrams (Treasurer) and Ariana Gordon (Secretary), the latter two nominations were unchallenged. Stabroek News’ Marcelle Thomas, along with Iva Wharton of Capitol News, veteran journalist Denis Chabrol, Alva Solomon and Nyjel Fraser were also elected to serve as floor members on the executive council. The election was held at the Theatre Guild in Kingston.
Before voting took place accusations flew back and forth over the construction of the list of voters and administrative matters. Marks sought to question the process for the compilation of the voters list and an executive decision behind the cut-off date for members’ registration. In the lead up to the elections, Marks had said that the GPA decision to not register new members would have disfranchised those who were eligible. Marks, along with news editors from 10 different media houses – mostly from the state media – in a petition called for the list of eligible voters to be available for scrutiny.
“In the interest of transparency and accountability; to ensure the integrity of the GPA; and to eliminate any concerns about the credibility of the list of voters, we call on the GPA executives… to release immediately the list of all members eligible to vote at the elections on May 14, 2023,” the petition stated. The elections yesterday were observed by representatives from the diplomatic corps.
Following the elections yesterday, a dissatisfied Marks said that his fears were confirmed and alleged that a padded list was used in the voting. He said that there were several persons who did not attain the three-year requirement as members of the media to vote but were allowed to and the executive failed to put in place a mechanism for objections to the list of electors.
“This was a shame and disgrace on us as journalists who seek to champion democracy, transparency and accountability. Those elected on the basis of rigged elections have lost credibility to question anyone on such issues,” an upset Marks said in a statement following the elections.
Active role
Raghubir in her address to the association appealed to members of the press to play an active role in the organization and “secure its independence.”
She said: “The Guyana Press Association needs you members of the media. GPA cannot do its work without you. And I was thankful that in the past couple of years the media stood its ground standing up and was and continues to be a guardian”.
The President highlighted too that now more than ever the GPA needs its own secretariat and staff for the smooth delivery of services to members. Moreover, she stressed that during the past five years, the GPA met and worked with several bodies, including, but not limited to, the Parliament of Guyana, the Guyana Police Force, the Judiciary, Ministry of Health at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ministry of Human Services, the Child Care and Protection Agency, Trafficking Department, the Guyana Elections Commission, PAHO/WHO, Justice Education Society, UNESCO, AMCHAM, the Canadian High Commission, the US Embassy and British High Commission. During that time, she told members, the British High Commission used some of its funding to host training for reporters on mental health and promoting responsible reporting on suicides which saw editors signing on to guidelines for responsible reporting.
“We also collaborated on a closed-door session for women in the media where a number of issues including mental health were discussed and a small amount of money has been set aside for counseling for any member of the media who needs it. We extended this to many of our colleagues who were affected by different realities in recent times, these would mean reporters would get access to a therapist and or psychiatrist,” she further highlighted.
Touching on the delayed elections, she explained that when the executive met in January 2020, when the elections were due, a decision was taken for the polls to be held after the March 2020 national and regional elections.
”No one anticipated a five-month election as well as a pandemic. In August 2020, the GPA executive met again and it was agreed by all Executives that the Elections due in 2020 would be postponed to 2021 as result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in limitations to public gatherings and meetings, and the need for physical distancing,” Raghubir explained.
According to her, during this period they also explored the possibility of conducting a virtual election but concerns were expressed about the constitutionality of a virtual election, noting that since there is no rule on it, it could be subsequently challenged. Moving forward, she called on members to keep the enthusiasm generated from this election to raise and speak out on issues and concerns, participate in training opportunities, encouraging membership, and most of all, remain committed to GPA values. She told members too that, “My role as president is to guide, not to rule or even control. It is merely to guide. I am only as good as you. And I will guide all of you or each of you that I can assist. That is my commitment as president.”
