At least three of the groups contesting next week’s general elections have agreed to participate in forums with students of the University of Guyana (UG) beginning today.
The University of Guyana Students’ Society (UGSS) has organised the forums due to its unsuccessful efforts to facilitate debates between the presidential and prime ministerial candidates of the two major groups contesting the May 11th elections.
So far, the candidates leading the APNU+AFC coalition, the National Independent Party and the Independent Party are scheduled to meet students today and on Friday, while The United Force (TUF) and the United Republican Party have indicated that they would confirm their participation in due time, the UGSS announced yesterday.
According to a statement issued by UGSS President Joshua Griffith, the incumbent PPP/C has declined the invitation, “citing as its reason what it deems to have been the unprofessional behavior of individuals during a pre-elections forum held in 2011.”
The UGSS had organised a presidential candidates’ forum in 2011 between the candidates of the PPP/C, the APNU, the AFC and the TUF. During the encounter, now president and then PPP/C candidate Donald Ramotar was heckled and booed at times.
According to the UGSS, although it has given assurances that it will strive to provide a convivial environment for its planned forum, they appeared to have made no difference to the PPP/C’s position.
As a result, given the limited time available, the UGSS said it remains prepared to fully accommodate the PPP/C as a participant, while it has decided to provide a forum for those political parties that have accepted its invitation in order to fulfill its obligation to the student body.
“This exercise is being executed in the context of the critical role that young people, including Univer-sity students, have to play in the exercise of electing a government to manage our country and the role which the UGSS has to play in providing students with the opportunity to directly engage representatives of those parties seeking to hold political office,” it said.
Accordingly, APNU+AFC coalition candidate David Granger will today engage students between 6PM and 7PM, while on Friday the presidential candidate for the National Independent Party Saphier Husain will meet with students from 2PM to 3PM, followed by leader of the Independent Party Mark Benschop, who will meet students from 3:15PM to 4:15PM.