President Donald Ramotar and a team of government officials on Wednesday visited the Essequibo Coast and it was clear that campaigning for the May 11 General and Regional Elections was getting into full swing.
The team stopped at Supenaam where the first meeting was held at the home of a private resident. In his remarks Ramotar said, “The opposition is seeking to make things bad for the country and they hope that if they can succeed in doing so they can blame the government and then the people will want to partner against the government.
That is the strategy they have been using to see if they can find a way back to rule the country.
They normally say and try to tell people that we do not consult with them but that is not true. We often have consultations with the Opposition to talk about what is the best way forward.”
He reiterated that he prorogued parliament to allow the Guyana Elec-tions Commission “another opportunity to do another round of continuous registration so that we can get more people in this particular area to get their birth certificates and other documents in order.
The other issue is that I wanted to talk to them (opposition) again about the anti-money laundering bill and that is what they refuse to do and that is why I had no choice but to call the elections. I could have kept postponing the parliament until May when the [prorogation] period had expired to call back parliament and prorogue it again and keep doing that.
But I don’t think that is fair for the country because I think it is time for the people to decide and is why we called elections for May 11th. That is the main reason we had to bring election so early after being in government for only three years.”
In his address, Regional Chairman Parmanand Persaud told residents that though the PPP/C party campaign has not yet begun, government aims to foster a better relationship with Essequibians.
He also said that under the current administration there has been tremendous development, house lots were allocated and water and electricity provided.
The group then travelled to the Good Hope Primary School where they were serenaded by the children with songs and rhymes.
Each child had the opportunity to greet the president and some were even given a warm embrace. Several other bottom house meetings were held during the day.
Later in the evening the group was featured on a live call-in programme on the local TV station RCA TV Channel 8. Rice farmers called in to enquire from General Secretary of the Rice Producers Association Dharamkumar Seeraj about the current price of paddy.
“Region Two is in a bit of a disadvantageous position because rice is the main agricultural crop. Region Two is even in danger of making a bad situation worse.
We have seen acreage increase in four short years … and this is against the backdrop of farmers complaining about difficulties that they are experiencing in the rice sector.” Seeraj also said that government intervention is to assist farmers and not to pay them.
