The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has accused Georgetown Mayor Hamilton Green of attempting to extort vendors in exchange for protection during possible elections unrest—a charge that the Chief Citizen has denied.
“Those claims are completely untrue, blatant lies, bizarre, [have] no basis of fact and outright ridiculous,” Green said at a press briefing called to rebut claims made by President Bharrat Jagdeo at a campaign meeting in Stewartville on Sunday and which were repeated by Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee at a press conference earlier today at Freedom House.
Rohee said efforts were being made to collect statements from vendors to build a police case against Green. He added that he learnt that a number of the vendors walked out of a meeting, after sounding their disapproval with the mayor’s overtures. “The extent to which it was successful is highly questionable,” he said.
Green, he alleged, was engaging in “intimidatory” action, in violation of the elections code of conduct for political parties. “My reading of the code of conduct makes reference to this, what I call this type of intimidatory behaviour and calls on the contesting parties to desist from this kind of intimidatory behaviour,” he added.
He also said that persons from opposition parties were also approaching some business owners to similarly solicit funds.
Green, however, admitted that as he meets with vendors, sometimes in his office, he lobbies for A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). He said he had no apologies to make for doing this, since he was not breaking the law but only advising vendors on choosing a government which he thought was best for Guyana. He said that he would not cease his lobby for persons to choose the APNU to lead Guyana, adding, “If Jagdeo comes to the Mayor’s Office, I will ask him too to vote APNU.”
