Opposition parties APNU and the AFC are clashing with the ruling PPP/C administration over the distribution of flood relief to Lethem residents over the weekend– with the opposition parties accusing the ruling party of “elections bribery”.
The PPP/C on Sunday held a public meeting in Lethem and reports are the PPP/C’s regional headquarters was utilized to pay persons $20,000 in cash as relief. The timing of the payout and the venue used has angered opposition parties and members of the public. However, PPP/C campaign spokesperson Robert Persaud said that the distribution of the aid was part of the government’s promise to its people after the flood in June but dissociated the party from the decision of where to distribute the flood relief.
When contacted, Regional Executive Officer (REO) for Region Nine (Upper Takutu/ Upper Essequibo) Ronald Harsawack said he was not aware of the procedure for distributing the flood relief. He said that it was the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs that was looking into the distribution of aid and said that the regional authorities were not involved in the process. Stabroek News was unable to contact Amerindian Affairs Minister Pauline Sukhai or Permanent Secretary in the Amerindian Affairs Ministry, Colin Croal for comment.
Meanwhile, the opposition parties yesterday expressed their displeasure at what transpired over the weekend. “It is the most outrageous instance of elections bribery,” APNU’s prime ministerial candidate Dr Rupert Roopnaraine said, charging that the government had people waiting for five months for relief and chose just before an elections to distribute this relief.
Roopnaraine said that residents on the ground have also complained about the irregularities in the distribution of this aid with some families getting $20,000 while some families have been receiving as much as $100,000. He said that he has spoken to the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Dr Steve Surujbally on the issue pointing out that it was a gross violation of the Elections Code of Conduct. Roopnaraine opined that the country will be seeing more and more of this lawlessness and elections bribery by the PPP/C as November 28 approaches.
Khemraj Ramjattan, the presidential candidate for the AFC, also described the distribution of aid as an “abuse of state resources”. “This again goes to show how the PPP is trying to bribe the Lethem people,” he added. Ramjattan indicated that the AFC currently has a team on the ground in Lethem and said that the residents there have indicated that they will not be swayed by the actions of the government. “So we told them take the things and vote for the key,” he said.
When questioned about this, PPP/C campaign spokesman Persaud, in a release, said that the distribution of aid has been going on for a number of weeks in the Rupununi and rejected that idea that the aid had something to do with the party’s election’s campaign. “To now claim that this exercise has something to do with the PPP/C elections campaign is ridiculous and a reflection of desperation,” he said. According to him, the assertion that some of the support was distributed in the vicinity of the public meeting site was merely in response to a request by villagers not to go to another location to collect their assistance. “This act was not sanctioned by the PPP/C campaign and the public officers should not have responded to the villagers’ appeal to stay at that location but go to another venue within Lethem,” Persaud said.
Persaud said that the promise to Region Nine was made five months ago when it was hit by a historic flood. At that time, the government had announced a menu of measures to support the communities in rebuilding and returning to normalcy. “The National Assembly subsequently, long before the elections campaign started or a date for elections was announced, appropriated money for the flood support interventions,” Persaud said. “The opposition parties participated in that deliberations in the National Assembly and was fully aware of the government’s quick, multi-pronged response to aid the affected communities in quick rebuilding and a return to normalcy,” he added.
“It seems that every time the government moves within its legal mandate and responsibilities to provide support to the people of Guyana, it is misconstrued as an electioneering ploy,” Persaud continued. This is a sad commentary on how much APNU and AFC care about the welfare of the Guyanese people,” he said.
