Up to press time this morning members of the Joint Services were in `C’ Field Sophia trying to restore calm after angry residents set six vehicles alight, stoned two houses and burnt a small shack with a horse stable attached, after alleging that ballot boxes were in the PPP/C command centre located in the area.
It was a chaotic scene as ranks fired warning shots at the massive crowd which remained unmoved. Two men, Terrence Clarkson and Glaston Peters had to be rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital after pellets struck them in the eye. Stabroek News also saw three persons including two young women who had pellet wounds to varying parts of their bodies.
Clarkson told Stabroek News that he was standing a bit back from the crowd when the police just opened fire. Peters who was using his t-shirt to cover his left eye told the media that he was heading out of the area to go home when “I feel is something knock me in meh eye.”
Although ranks had fired several warning shots to keep the crowd back while several reporters, PPP/C member Joseph Hamilton, Pastor Narine Khublall who owns the private residents where holed up in the command centre, the residents refused to leave the scene.
It all started sometime before 6 pm when the command centre came under attack after residents alleged that they saw ballot boxes being taken there. Stabroek News was told by a rank on the scene that a team from the coalition had visited the location earlier and found no ballot boxes on the premises. But people were not satisfied and the crowd grew as residents continued to insist that ballot boxes were taken there and that there was some voting earlier in the day.
Within an hour, there was a mammoth crowd and the ranks on the scene struggled to maintain control. It was later agreed that AFC member and attorney Joel Edmond along with a resident and members of the media would go in and conduct a search of the building. This was done and nothing was found. However, before long persons began throwing bottles and the stones at the building.
Hamilton, who said he was in charge of the command centre, explained that food for the staff there was transported in three large containers. These containers are almost similar in size and style to the ones used as ballot boxes. A check of the containers which were in a minibus parked a short distance away revealed that it was only boxes of food that was inside. The bus was later overturned by the angry residents.
Hamilton told the media that the police were only there because people are “behaving in a certain way”.
Hamilton stressed that “this place has nothing to do with ballots.” He said that he had brought the Rubbermaid containers from his home to make the transport of the boxes of food easier.
Fire
However, elements in the crowd, clearly not satisfied, proceeded to set fire to several vehicles parked outside the command centre, one of which belonged to Hamilton. Occasional explosions from the vehicles could be heard from a distance away, apparently from a flammable substance being continuously thrown to ensure that the blaze continued. One of the vehicles was turned on its side.
Missiles were thrown at a house next door and there were signs that attempts were made to set it alight. A truck which was parked outside was also damaged. Additionally a roadside food stall which was on the parapet nearby was overturned and pulled onto the roadway which was littered with glass. This newspaper also saw a motorcycle lying on the roadway but it is unclear how it got there.
The mob then turned their attention to a small shack and horse stable located on the dam opposite the command centre. They alleged that it had some connection to Khublall.
About an hour into the unrest several dozen armed soldiers and riot police arrived. They took up strategic positions on opposite ends of the command centre. Although
comments, some derogatory were made, the ranks stood their ground. So did dozens of residents who did not seem bothered by the late hour or the thick smoke. They had also blocked the road with debris and started a small fire there.
When this newspaper left the area close to midnight things were at a standstill with the law enforcement officials keeping watch and residents congregated in groups chatting. Though the reporters were allowed to leave once the riot police and soldiers arrived, Hamilton and the others remained in the command centre.
Law enforcement officials were kept on their toes throughout the day following several other chaotic episodes at several polling stations in the city.
Joint services teams and other security teams maintained a high presence in some areas.
Residents remained outside all polling stations, some had a bigger crowd than others to “protect the ballots,” they claimed and ensure that there was no mischief afoot to either remove boxes or tamper with them. Some remained there even after the statements of poll were posted up.
At least four men were taken into police custody after being accused of attempting to steal ballot boxes in the Tucville/Guyhoc Park area. One of them received a sound trashing before he was handed over to the police with a swollen eye.
Several attempts to make contact with Crime Chief Leslie James for an update on the security situation in the city were futile. Earlier in the day a statement from the police said that as a result of expressions of intimidation by members of the electorate, coupled with few incidents in Georgetown, the Commissioner of Police had called on the Chief of Staff for the support of Guyana Defence Force troops in the conduct of Joint GDF/GPF Patrols.
The Chief of Staff, the release said, had consented and these patrols were likely to commence within the hour. Stabroek News did see a team of soldiers in an open back vehicle on Brickdam. Later this newspaper noticed joint services teams at various locations in the city.
The joint patrols were intended for the sole purpose of building confidence, the release stressed.
In some of the cases, police had difficulty maintaining order and despite undergoing a security exercise last Friday to brush up their elections preparedness, ranks seemed confused and clueless as to what needed to be done. There was no sign of the water cannon yesterday although there were at least two cases where the crowd swelled to a mammoth number outnumbering the ranks and police community group members who were present.
At the close of polls at 6 pm there were two helicopters – one yellow and the other burgundy – patrolling from the skies.
Turning Point
The first signs of chaos emerged around 12.25 pm outside the Turning Point Snackette in Tucville where two polling stations are located. Police officials told this newspaper that residents beat a man who they accused of attempting to remove ballot boxes. He was later handed over to the police who whisked him away in a police vehicle.
Persons in the area said that the man was dropped off in the area by a known PPP/C affiliate who is also a former policeman and when the man was caught the affiliate drove off smiling. As the crowd grew a decision was taken to close the gates to one of the polling stations. A woman who identified herself as the owner of the business told Stabroek News that it was not closed but rather the gates were pushed in as a security precaution while those inside remained vigilant.
An elderly man pushing a bicycle and another man ringing a bell pleaded with voters to remain outside the polling stations and keep watch. They warned that efforts were being made by known individuals linked to the ruling party to tamper with the elections process.
Police ranks began arriving at the scene and before long some were seen heading in the direction of Guyhoc Park. The ranks who were on motorcycles appeared confused as they tried to ascertain where they should go. They had received reports that there was some commotion at another polling centre located in the Guyhoc area.
Subsequently this newspaper noticed about four motorcycles and a number of vehicles heading to that area. It was noticed that the glass at the back of a police pick up was shattered and this newspaper was told that the damage was done by residents.
This newspaper was later told that three suspicious looking men were arrested in Guyhoc Park. One was found hiding in the bottom flat apartment of a house and according to residents he does not live there.
Persons were heard openly complaining about the poor work being done by the police. The crowd at Turning Point became out of control. Foul language was rampant and residents, some small children and women had armed themselves with pieces of wood. One of the women who was clearly upset stressed that “this thing gotta done….we gotta f…ing find them.”
It was APNU+AFC’s prime ministerial candidate Moses Nagamootoo and campaign manager Joesph Harmon who managed to quell the crowd.
Nagamootoo stated that based on his information from the polling staff at Turning Point, 34 people were yet to vote. He urged the crowd to stand back and allow those persons to cast their ballots. He stressed that they needed to be 200 feet away. He said that a lot of rumours were being spread, “because they know that they have lost this one and they are trying desperately to confuse you and to disrupt this elections.” He assured the crowd that his party had been making complaints of reports received to observers who are present at the polling stations.
He urged the crowd not to become disruptive and instead bring those who have not yet voted to the polls. “Tomorrow we will all enjoy the fruits of peace,” he said to loud cheers.
Harmon later told this newspaper that he heard of some incident in the area but stressed that nothing physical happened in the Turning Point Snackette.
Kwame McCoy
Just after 3 pm, persons rushed down to the St Sidwell’s Primary School after word spread that PPP/C member Kwame McCoy had gone there. Earlier in the day McCoy and other top government functionaries were accused of recruiting young men to steal ballot boxes.
The crowd became so large that the police ranks on duty were forced to locks the gates to the compound. APNU+AFC presidential candidate David Granger and Harmon later arrived. Granger, after a short visit inside the polling station pleaded with the crowd from the tray of a police vehicle which was parked on the roadway to allow the police to do their work in getting McCoy out of the area.
Persons in the crowd formed a human walkway and as McCoy emerged from the building the crowd erupted in anger, hurling slurs and other remarks at him. He later walked to the police vehicle which sped off. He was not physically harmed.
However, the PPP/C later said that McCoy was attacked and injured and had to be hospitalized.
Executive Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, Zulficar Mohamed claimed that the party candidate was hospitalized after being attacked. Mohamed told members of the media during an update to the election process at Freedom House that McCoy was “injured by the thugs there, the opposition they hold him and now he is in the hospital he has received a number of wounds and this is the kind of behaviour we have been seeing also in different parts of the country.”
However, this newspaper was at the scene and at no time did anyone physically attack McCoy. Up to the time he entered the police vehicle, there was no sign that he was injured.
He was said to be relieving a party polling agent at the school when the incident occurred.
Church of Transfiguration
Then around 5 pm there was another incident at the Church of Transfiguration on Mandela Avenue where according to residents suspicious men wearing dark shades were seen. One woman who said that she was keeping vigil all day “because they try this thing last time so we knew they woulda come back.” According to her, five men and one woman were seen in two dark tinted vehicles – one a brownish colour pickup and a silver grey vehicle. She said that when one resident inquired about their presence one said that the woman had come to check to see if she was registered to vote at the polling station inside the compound. Another man, she said, later made a comment which suggested that there would be bloodshed. She said that as news of the suspicious persons spread, residents started to converge in droves.
When Stabroek News arrived persons had lined both sides of Mandela Avenue as a joint service patrol team sat in a vehicle parked at the entrance to the church/polling place compound.
The woman said that after persons began arriving, the two vehicles left.
There were also reports that a group of residents stormed a ruling party’s command centre in Albouystown. The accusation was that the party’s volunteers were robbed and assaulted as well as several items were vandalized by the group. Stabroek News was unable to find the command centre which was said to be located at the home a supporter on Independence Boulevard.
