Dear Editor,
As a reader of the Stabroek News, I was a bit taken aback by its publication on Saturday, August 4th 2019 of a story which says that over 100,000 persons have registered so far during GECOM’s house-to-house registration exercise. The source of this information is the taxpayer-funded APNU+AFC propaganda entity, Department of Public Information (DPI).
I find this wholesale publication of uncorroborated information from a questionable source to be un-Stabroek News like, given that it is a news outlet which prides itself in adherence to journalistic fundamentals such as verification.
The DPI’s attempt to propagandize by falsely projecting support for the illegal house-to-house registration could not have escaped the author of that Stabroek News article. I’m sure DPI’s use of a picture with an Indo-Guyanese being registered was done in order to deceive readers into thinking that the activity has widespread support.
All Stabroek News had to do is to ask the GECOM PRO for a disaggregation of the numbers in order to maintain its objectivity and credibility. A simple breakdown of the numbers to say how many persons registered and in which areas would’ve sufficed.
I live on the East Coast of Demerara and in my village alone, hundreds of persons have refused to be registered. This is being replicated into thousands across that section of Region Four and hundreds of thousands across the country. In addition to the non-participation of thousands of Guyanese across the country, this exercise is not being properly scrutinized and it will deregister many more thousands. It is therefore illegal and illegitimate and is being done in defiance of the ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice.
Yours faithfully,
Nalinie Singh
