Nazima Raghubir re-elected as President in controversial GPA elections

…disappointment expressed at electoral process

Incumbent Guyana Press Association (GPA) President Nazima Raghubir was on Sunday re-elected to another term as President of the Caribbean’s second oldest press association, but not without some controversy. Contender, Neil Marks, raised a number of concerns before the elections got underway.
The elections, which were held at the Theatre Guild, saw a sizeable turnout of media workers. Preceding the elections, both GPA President Raghubir and incumbent Secretary Svetlana Abrams, gave their reports.
Raghubir was first elected in 2018. It was pointed out that with the advent of the General and Regional Elections in 2020 a decision was taken by the executive to delay the GPA elections on the basis that reporters would be too busy with the national election coverage to turn out to vote for the media one.

The GPA executives. From left (front row) Secretary Ariana Gordon, Treasurer Svetlana Marshall, President Nazima Raghubir and floor member Iva Wharton. (Back row) Floor members Nygel Fraser, Dennis Chabrol, Alva Solomon, Marcelle Fowler and Vice President Rawle Toney

Abrams, meanwhile, also explained that back in August 2020, the GPA executive had agreed to further postpone the elections, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. While a virtual election was considered, they eventually decided against it. Between 2018 and 2020 several members of the GPA resigned for various reasons.
This year, a May 6 deadline was enforced whereby media workers who had not paid their dues by that time would not be allowed to vote. It was announced by the GPA executive that of the 115 association members, 110 were eligible to vote on Sunday. However, this decision received much criticism from members of the media.
In a heated exchange, Marks, himself a former GPA President from 2015 to 2018, used the question-and-answer segment before the elections to register his concerns over the process and the cut-off date implemented.
“I had pointed out that this GPA, certainly the one that I ran as President, we never had this arrangement where the registration is done before and a deadline is set. Our convention has always been people come at these elections and are given an opportunity to register, pay their dues and vote. So, on that basis I raised the concern of disenfranchisement of people who wanted to vote. And I thought it was something reasonable to ask about,” Marks said.

Deadline, voters’ list
Marks further noted that he had raised concerns about whether persons who applied for membership before the May 6 deadline would be allowed to vote. He pointed out that there is no provision in the GPA’s constitution or general resolution of members that membership cannot be approved within days of an election. However, Abrams responded by pointing out that the GPA constitution itself makes it clear that applications first have to be vetted.
On the issue of the voters’ list, the executive was asked why this was not released prior to the elections and in response, Dennis Chabrol said that the executive is not obliged to disclose membership status
“…by providing the list will mean the disclosure of persons financial status or status in the organisation and that is the rationale for not providing the list at the then time, the time to do so will be on the floor.”
However, when Returning Officer (RO), Attorney-at-Law Ronald Burch-Smith read the list of eligible voters, it was pointed out that there were names of persons on the list who are not considered media workers as per the constitution of the GPA.
Elections were eventually held under the guidance of Burch-Smith. When the dust had settled, Raghubir emerged victorious with a total of 70 votes against Marks, who received 25 votes. There was one spoilt ballot. Along with Abrams’s election to the post of Treasurer; Sport Journalist Rawle Toney was elected Vice President and Ariana Gordon was elected Secretary. The other five committee members elected were Alva Solomon; Nygel Fraser; Marcelle Fowler; Denis Chabrol and Iva Wharton.
Observers from the diplomatic community were at the elections.

Disappointment
Meanwhile, Marks in a post-election statement reiterated his disappointment in the electoral process and said that while some were excluded due to the missed May 6 deadline, there were others who were allowed to vote who he said did not reach the three-year membership requirement to do so.
““My fears that the list was heavily padded came through and was very evident,” Marks added.
The elections were held one day after social media content creator Mikhail Rodrigues aka “Guyanese Critic’s” failed attempt to secure a court order against the elections. While Rodrigues contended in his Notice of Application that the GPA arbitrarily refused his membership application and set May 6, 2023, as the last day for registration, acting Chief Justice Roxane George ruled that the GPA is not a corporate entity and thus, its executives were immune from judicial review.
The controversy surrounding Sunday’s elections had heightened over the past week. On Thursday last, several local media entities signed a petition calling on the GPA to release the voters’ list ahead of the Annual General Meeting.
In the petition, the media houses expressed “serious concerns” about the AGM, particularly about membership and the voters’ list.
They explained that in the past, it has been the practice of the GPA to register members and collect their dues on the day of elections in cases where dues had not been paid. In cases where new members who meet the eligibility criteria to vote, that is, three working years in the media, wished to sign up and pay the required dues, they were allowed to do so. This way all members eligible to vote could only be known on the day of the elections itself.
“This year, the GPA Executive abandoned that convention and set May 6 as the date for the payment of dues for EXISTING members and has said registration of new members will be approved by the new executive. This decision effectively denies membership to many who are working members of the media for three years (and more) and who wish to participate in the elections,” the petition detailed.
To this end, the media houses said in the interest of transparency and accountability and to ensure the integrity of the GPA as well as to eliminate any concerns about the credibility of the list of voters, they called on the GPA executive to immediately release the list of all members eligible to vote at the elections on May 14.
Meanwhile, the GPA executive, in a statement on Thursday, was adamant about not releasing the 110-member voters’ list, claiming that some members have requested confidentiality prior to Sunday’s election.