Controversial Local Government Elections (LGE) candidate Winston Harding, who won a seat to the City Council on Friday despite being disavowed by APNU+AFC says he will abide with its decision.
After Stabroek News reported on Wednesday that Harding had faced a child molestation charge, APNU – the main partner in the governing coalition – announced that it would no longer support him.
Despite this, Harding easily won his seat. Yesterday, he told Stabroek News he is awaiting word on the fate of his seat from the coalition.
“I do not wish to say anything right now because I have not heard from the party as yet on what they are doing with me,” Harding told Stabroek News.
This newspaper yesterday caught up with the winner of Constituency 13 (East and West Ruimveldt) at the corner of West Ruimveldt Front Road and Vlissengen Road, in conversation with Minister of Social Protection Volda Lawrence who was also in charge of the governing coalition’s candidates.
When Stabroek News approached the duo, Lawrence walked off and left Harding who explained that whatever choice the party made he will abide by. “Yes the decision is theirs,” he answered when asked if whatever the party decides he will go with.
Even though the government has publicly declared its non-support for Harding, it was on Saturday revealed that there is no legal barrier to him taking up a seat on the City Council.
“There is no legal basis for disqualification of the candidate. It is a moral question, it is a political question but it certainly is not a legal question,” Guyana Elec-tions Commission (GECOM) Commis-sioner Vincent Alexander said during a press conference.
President David Granger has said that Harding’s possible recall will have to be discussed at the party level and that he will be seeking an explanation from Minister Lawrence as to how he ended up as a candidate for the coalition. Despite the revelations, there had been defensive statements from Lawrence which led to calls for her immediate resignation.
Alexander, when questioned on the issue of a recall, said, “Our legislation for local government does not provide for a recall of that sort.”
Asked if members of a constituency could petition for a candidate’s removal, given that the first- past-the-post system has been touted as a means to keep councillors responsive to the needs of their constituency, Alexander said there was no provision for individual recall.
“This is not a GECOM question,” he said, adding, “GECOM operates according to existing legislation.”
He explained that as far as he is aware there is a mechanism for overall recall of the council but none for an individual councillor.
“It is a matter for which I have advocated. Personally I would agree that there is need for a recall mechanism but it didn’t find itself into the law,” he told reporters.
Stabroek News had confirmed that Harding had been charged more than once with indecent assault and another accusation had been made against him in 2012.
Lawrence, when contacted by Stabroek News on Tuesday, had said that the allegations were a “family issue.” She had maintained that the accusations began and ended with Harding’s sister. “This is a family issue that has been going on and on and on and on for whatever reason, I can’t tell you, because if I had a brother, even if there was an accusation, this is not how I would go about helping him,” she told this newspaper.
“Do you think that me, the minister in charge of that [social protection], would have someone like that running? Do you think that the party would expose itself like that? We are aware of the situation but he was never charged,” the minister had declared. Stabroek News’ records however showed that he was charged although information on the outcome of the case was not available.
