The main opposition APNU yesterday held picketing exercises in the country’s six municipalities to demand the holding of local government elections to allow citizens to manage their own communities.
Protests were held in Georgetown, New Amster-dam, Rose Hall, Corriver-ton, Linden, and Anna Regina after APNU mobilised supporters in keeping with a recent announcement by coalition leader David Granger of a campaign of peaceful demonstrations.
Granger led the picketing exercise conducted outside of the Office of the President in the city and according to APNU he said the coalition would continue its campaign of protests until a date is announced for the holding of the elections, which were last run off in 1994.
The PPP/C administration has faced a renewed push this year for the holding of the elections, due every three years. In light of government’s unwillingness to even commit to a date, Granger last week announced “a campaign of lawful, orderly, peaceful public protests–including picketing, rallies and vigils–to raise public awareness of the threat to our collective rights.”
Berbice
In New Amsterdam, the office of the Regional Democratic Council of Region Six was the target of the peaceful picketing exercise. Some two dozen members and supporters of APNU armed themselves with placards and picketed the office in protest over the current government’s refusal to hold local government elections. The protestors spent over an hour in the scorching midday sun demanding that the ruling PPP/C government “end its dictatorship and allow the hosting of the elections which is the democratic right of all Guyanese.”
Elaborating on the position taken by APNU, the coalition’s Berbice representative Jevaughn Stephen said local government