In the wake of calls for Social Protection Minister Volda Lawrence to be relieved of her portfolio over her comments on a coalition candidate accused of child molestation, President David Granger said he would await an explanation on the controversial nomination before a decision on the way forward.
“What I would like to do is find out is the circumstances under which [Winston] Harding was nominated. We have a procedure, that the nominations come from the members of various components parties,” Granger said yesterday.
He said Cabinet will meet on Thursday, when Lawrence will have to explain Harding’s nomination.
Lawrence, who was responsible for the coalition’s Georgetown campaign, has faced criticism for Harding’s candidacy and comments she made that appeared to downplay allegations of child molestations made against him.
Harding was a candidate in Constituency 13, which he won by a landslide despite the coalition withdrawing support for him. He cannot legally be removed from the council unless he is convicted of a crime or chooses to resign. Harding had told this newspaper, after his win that he would abide by whatever decision is made by the coalition.
Harding had been previously charged with indecent assault of a minor on more than one occasion and was facing similar accusations.
When approached by this newspaper on the issue, Lawrence had described the allegations against Harding as a family matter. “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.
Lawrence’s comments incensed local NGO Red Thread, which, with support from ChildLink, Help and Shelter, the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Associa-tion (GRPA) and Forward Guyana, has so far staged two protests demanding that the president remove Lawrence from the ministry.
Asked what he would say to Harding in the current circumstance, the President said that he has already made a press statement on it and repeated that he would like to get a report from Lawrence to explain the circumstances of how Harding came to be nominated.
