– GCCI boss urges citizens
Recognising that the Government and Opposition have not yet been able to see eye to eye on a nominee to serve as Chairman for the Guyana Elections Commissions (GECOM)—although the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is set to hand down consequential orders on Friday— the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), through its President, Nicholas Boyer, has called on citizens to not allow politicians to control their actions.
Boyer made this appeal at the launch of the Business Guyana Magazine 2019, hosted at Pegasus Hotel.
“What we, as Guyanese, can see clearly is that the brinkmanship here is at play and we are being used as pawns. I implore all seated here…and the population, do not let puppeteers pull strings and talk about war, or disturbances,” Boyer said to the gathering at Pegasus Hotel.
The GCCI President made it clear that while he believes in freedom of speech, he firmly believes that it is not the place of politicians to divide the people.
“We are not at war with each other, nor do we need to be loyal to anyone based on our ethnicity. Going to the polls in Guyana needs to become a routine exercise of our democratic rights without fear, and all political parties need to be held accountable to delivering that type of atmosphere for us,” he added.
The Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) is conducting a probe into calls for war and protests made by the Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo, and Finance Minister Winston Jordan.
During an outreach in Bartica last month, Finance Minister Winston Jordan called on supporters to go out and protest for House-to-House registration, noting that if that does not happen, then there would be “war break”.
“Comrades, be on the ready! Because we will be able to call you out to picket for House-to-House registration. No registration, no elections”!
Jordan added, “From today Comrades, war break. Because we got to go to elections before the end of this year, hopefully. I say hopefully because we can only go to elections when GECOM says it’s ready. So don’t let anyone tell you anything”.
“And I’m putting the Police on notice. Mischief will be afoot between now and when the elections are called. You have to be on your guard and your lookout. Your intelligence has to be upgraded. Because already there is talk about bringing people on the street,” he said.
Similar sentiments were also expressed by Prime Minister Nagamootoo, who declared that there would be “trouble” without House-to-House registration and urged street protests.
