Guard against misinformation about electoral process – GECOM urges citizens

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is calling on the Guyanese electorate to be cautious of misinformation being circulated online regarding the electoral process.
GECOM, in a statement on Sunday evening, said that it is aware of an information piece circulating on social media about the electoral process.
According to the Commission, this development is of utmost concern since the information is misleading and has the potential to confuse voters in relation to the voting process as they prepare to cast their ballot in General and Regional Elections today.
“In this regard, GECOM finds it necessary to remind voters to be cautious about where they access information regarding the elections, and urges citizens to rely only on GECOM’s official information channels as their primary source,” it stated.
The Elections Commission further called on persons engaged in disseminating unverified information to refrain from such undertaking, noting that these actions can have damaging consequences for the electorate.
Meanwhile, in a separate statement on Sunday, GECOM had to denounce a false post on the Sherod Duncan-operated Facebook page, which alleged that GECOM’s staff who were assigned to a polling station at a private residence at Hibiscus Drive, Peters Hall on the East Bank of Demerara, were chased out by the proprietor.
According to the Commission, this was a blatantly false claim and in no way reflects the accurate account of the reasons for the movement of the polling station.
It was explained that the owner of the private residence indicated on Sunday that he was no longer interested in his property being used as a polling station. As such, GECOM’s logistics team immediately sought and finalised an alternative arrangement, relocating the polling station to the Caricom General Insurance Company, which is a short distance away from the original location.
GECOM said it was necessary to debunk “the deliberate mischief” emanating from this social media page, especially on the eve of the General and Regional Elections.
“GECOM takes this opportunity to once again call on all stakeholders to be responsible in their reporting, and verify information before publishing, especially at such critical juncture: few hours before the conduct of General and Regional Election. These type of misinformation and disinformation are disruptive and can cause unnecessary panic and confusion in an already heightened political environment,” the missive detailed.
Moreover, during a pre-election day press conference earlier on Sunday, Chief Elections Officer Vishnu Persaud and his Deputy, Aneal Giddings, played another social media post made by an overseas-based female who made certain allegations against the two senior GECOM officials, along with Chairperson, Ret’d Justice Claudette Singh.
According to Persaud, the video in no way, shape or form affects or has any impact on him. He, nonetheless, rejected every insinuation and accusation made, stressing that “…there is absolutely no way that any of the falsehoods that are mentioned in that video can happen.”
He pointed out that all six political parties that contesting today’s elections have agents in all of the polling stations – something which the Commission went out of its way to ensure that there is no prohibition with them monitoring the process in the interest of transparency and integrity.
These party agents, he noted, along with accredited international and local observers will be looking on the polling day activities, the counting of ballots after the close of polls and the tabulation process.
Other safeguards like the posting of the Statements of Poll (SoPs) outside each polling station – all of which will also be uploaded on GECOM’s website, make it difficult for anyone to manipulate the results. He further noted that neither him nor the DCEO nor the Chairperson have any input in the tabulation process at the polling stations.
According to Persaud, it is only after each of the 10 districts declared their results after completing the tabulation process that the results are sent to the Chairperson and the CEO. Upon receiving the declaration for all 10 regions, the CEO then has 12 hours to put together the national results, which includes seat allocation by parties depending on the votes they receive and submit this information to the seven-member Commission for ratification and declaration.
Persaud said, “I needed to bring this out to dispel this notion that somehow by some magic, some voodoo, something, that the Chief Election Officer, Deputy Chief Election Officers and the chairman is involved or has concocted some scheme to manipulate the results of the elections.”
“It is with that in mind that we call upon all political parties and civil society organisations to appeal to their supporters, their constituents, not to attempt in any way to thwart the successful conduct of these elections. We at the level of the Secretariat…we reaffirm our commitment to deliver free, fair and credible elections.”