Guyana News

The incumbent APNU+ AFC coalition yesterday both challenged the legality of the ongoing national recount of votes from the March 2 elections and also committed to abiding by its results.

General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday called on the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to request the return of international observers for the ongoing recount of votes from the March 2 polls, while saying that the three-member CARICOM team that has been observing the process is not enough.

Amidst continued calls by Guyanese stranded abroad for the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF) to grant permission for them to return home, head of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) Lt.

An audit report on Cricket West Indies (CWI) has raised serious concerns about a financial transaction that could appear to be money laundering and a conflict of interest with a loan pertaining to an employee  no longer with CWI.

After 11 days of recounting, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has completed 546 of 2,339 ballot boxes but it is still awaiting word from the National COVID-19 Task Force on increasing the number of work stations to meet its deadline.

The police are investigating the death of a Bartica grocer, whose body was discovered in an abandoned mining pit at 3 Miles, Karrau Backdam, Mazaruni on Friday afternoon.

Noting the ease with which Region Nine’s first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) entered several communities in the South Rupununi area, members of the South Rupununi District Council (SRDC) are calling on the government to halt all mining practices in order to prevent the deadly disease from making its way into those communities.

Despite an appeal to de facto Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence and other authorities to suspend mining in Chinese Landing due to fears over the possible spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Region One community, Toshao Orin Fernandes says there has been no response.

Ganesh Dhanraj, one of the two murder accused who escaped from the Lusignan Prison last month, was recaptured yesterday.

One day after the police issued a wanted bulletin for Donald Sheriff for questioning in relation to the murder of New Amsterdam, Berbice resident Keron Nicholson, he was arrested in Mahdia.

The Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) has been promoting a diversity challenge on social media in an effort to promote harmony.

After glitches during production startup saw flaring of over 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas,  ExxonMobil has assured that it will from this week begin transitioning to using the gas for well injection purposes, Head of the Environment Protection Agency Dr Vincent Adams says.

(Jamaica Observer Editorial May 15) It’s no secret that the discovery of oil — estimated at more than eight billion barrels — off Guyana’s Atlantic coast is the big prize in the general election that is still undecided after two months.

-no word from gov’t task force on increasing work stations After 10 days of counting the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has processed 479 of 2,339 ballot boxes, 58 of which were recounted yesterday but it is still awaiting word from the COVID-19 task force on increasing the number of workstations to meet its deadline. 

The APNU+AFC administration has refused a renewed United States diplomatic push for the Carter Center to be allowed to return to observe the recount of the votes cast at the March 2 polls, citing CARICOM’s ongoing role in the process and the closure of the airports due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After it was publicly disavowed by President David Granger, United States lobbying firm JJ&B LLC has submitted a brief contract document to the United States government in which it now states that it has been employed by Joseph Harmon and David Patterson on behalf of the APNU+AFC coalition.

The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) yesterday announced that it had reached an interim agreement for salary increases for sugar workers with the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), although the two sides remain at odds over whether the increases would be retroactive to the start of last year.

Attorney and accountant Christopher Ram has threatened legal action against five government functionaries who are currently participating in the national recount as party agents for the incumbent APNU+AFC Coalition for potentially receiving payment while not performing public service functions.

Linden Junior Isaacs, the man who is accused of fatally stabbing his mother-in-law at Vryheid’s Lust, East Coast Demerara (ECD) on Monday, was charged with murder and remanded to prison yesterday.

Guyana has recorded new COVID-19 cases, raising the total to 116.