The People’s Progressive Party (PPP/C) will not contest the seats in the Wakenaan Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) at the November 12th Local Government Elections, having withdrawn its list of candidates because a number of the names of nominators were either dead or they no longer live in the area.
Asked about the allegations that the PPP/C list was flawed because the backers of the list were either dead or not in the area, Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo told the media yesterday at his weekly press conference in Queenstown, Georgetown, even before the question was completed, “Withdrew, withdrew.”
He added, “We didn’t even go through. I saw it and believed that something went wrong there and we withdrew as I promised. We withdrew from contesting in that constituency.”
At a press conference on September 24th at Freedom House, at which the PPP claimed that the Alliance For Change submitted to the Guyana Elections Commission lists with names of backers who were either misled into signing, or whose names were fraudulently placed on the list, Jagdeo was confronted about similar allegations at Wakenaam and asked what he would do. At that time, he had said, “We are examining that now and if that turns out to be true, we are going to instruct the people on the ground not to contest that area because we will not tolerate it.”
Noting that members of the party have taken legal action to have their names removed and to bar the Alliance For Change for contesting in areas where the backers of lists are objecting to their names being on the lists, Jagdeo said, the move to the courts was meant to protect people’s rights in having their names removed.
He said that the system has to be improved to allow for backers to present themselves in persons as it was found that people forged signatures of the dead or of people who are living abroad.
He suggested that backers appear before a Justice of the Peace personally to nominate a candidate. He said that it may be burdensome but it will be a foolproof way of moving the process forward.
