A Corentyne, Berbice pastor is accusing the Alliance For Change (AFC) of using him as a “scapegoat” and of now asking him to be silent, but he said that he could not be quiet, since the party has caused him to fool his entire congregation.
Pastor Lieon Benjamin, in an interview with Guyana Times International, said that he was the AFC’s candidate for Constituency Number One in the Good Hope-Number 51 Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC). According to him, after he obtained all the required signatures and documents, he noticed that his name was removed and replaced with the name of a close associate of one of the party’s executives.
Benjamin said he made the discovery that he was not the AFC candidate for the constituency when the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) released the names of candidates contesting the November 12 Local Government Elections (LGE).
According to Benjamin, he had given his documents to an AFC executive, who claimed that the party had approved and submitted the list.
However, when GECOM published the names of candidates, it was changed.
Pastor Benjamin said that he had got members of his congregation and villagers to support him and now they were accusing him of tricking them.
Murriel Brusch, who signed in support of Benjamin, said that she supported the pastor as the candidate and not the person whose name suddenly appeared on the list as the AFC candidate for the constituency.
When this publication contacted the person whose name appeared as the candidate for the constituency instead of Benjamin, she initially agreed to the interview, but after a short conversation with an AFC executive, she returned and said that she has nothing to say on the matter.
Meanwhile, Benjamin told this newspaper that several top officials from the party have telephoned him asking that he not go to the media.
“I can’t do that, because the people in the village who I went to believe that it is I who tricked them,” he said.
According to Benjamin, he signed on the candidate’s form and received 22 backers.
“I gave it to (name withheld) who took it to Georgetown and it was confirmed that everything was okay. When it came back, I don’t know what happened, but from then on we don’t know what transpired.”
He said the persons who he had gone to in order to get their signatures were backing him and not necessarily the AFC.
“Because I am the pastor in the area and they were looking for someone in the area who could have done certain things for them. We have some trenches in the area that have bush for years and the last person that was there did nothing, so they think that I was the fittest person to represent them,” he added.
This is not the first time persons in Berbice, Region Six are accusing the AFC of tricking them.
The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) had filed a legal challenge after it found what the Party alleged to be “fraudulent” names on the GECOM list.
Legal proceedings began after 50 persons in the Whim-Bloomfield Local Authority Area, Berbice alleged that they were tricked into signing the AFC LGE list for their area.
Shafraz Beekham, of Letter Kenny Village, Corentyne, and 49 other persons from the Bloomfield-Whim, Corentyne area, filed affidavits saying they were misled into believing that they were supporting a party of their choice when in reality, they actually were “misled” into signing AFC’s nominator lists. The PPP’s legal suit was filed on behalf of Beekham.
Berbice High Court Judge, Justice Navindra Singh ruled that there was no evidence of fraud, trickery or threat, and noted that there was no basis to ask the Chief Elections Officer to strike out the names of the nominators from AFC’s Lists of Candidates. However, the PPP has since appealed the ruling. (Andrew Carmichael)
