APNU+AFC Campaign Co-chair Joseph Harmon says he is unaware of aggressive behaviour by coalition supporters towards media operatives and said that they do not encourage such conduct.
At a press conference on Saturday, Harmon was asked about the behaviour of coalition supporters towards media operatives the previous evening. Stabroek News had previously reported that supporters of the APNU+AFC coalition on Friday harassed representatives of rival political parties, observer groups and members of the media as they stood behind the security barriers outside the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) offices.
Further, late Friday night, reporters were invited to provide coverage of a declaration to be made by the Returning Officer for Region Four but upon arrival at the barricade surrounding GECOM’s headquarters, they were met by APNU+AFC supporters who repeatedly hurled insults and threats, saying that they were not welcomed. Reporters, fearful for their safety, were forced to leave. Additionally, a party representative was seen communicating with the crowd.
According to Harmon, the behaviour of the APNU+AFC supporters throughout the elections process was respectful. He added that no one knows everything and denied that a coalition representative had been communicating with the crowd. He further stated that the party could not be blamed for the crowd’s behaviour.
He then went on to say that the party does not condone that type of behaviour. “We will not encourage our supporters to manhandle the media in an aggressive way,” he said.
After the press conference, reporters were in disbelief that Harmon was overlooking the behaviour described.
Harmon also said that coalition supporters have not been trying to obstruct the elections process with their behaviour, instead accusing some of the other parties’ representatives of such action.
“We don’t use words like chase and so on,” he said, opining that their supporters would therefore not use such words and would not commit such acts. “Those words are used by another party when they speak to their supporters and they tell them ‘chase out Granger’, ‘chase out the ministers’ and so on. We do not engage in that type of behaviour,” he said.
Harmon said that if the behaviour described is true of the supporters, it was a spur-of-the-moment reaction and emphasised that it was not directed by party representatives. He added that people try to “pin” things on the party so as to give it a bad name. He emphasised that they do not encourage such behaviour.
