APNU’s Vanessa Kissoon arrested, released after disrupting PPP Linden meeting

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament Vanessa Kissoon was arrested and released on Tuesday evening after she disrupted a meeting held in Linden by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP).

Stabroek News understands that Kissoon along with other APNU members disrupted the party’s public meeting and as a result, police ranks placed her under arrest. She was said to be chanting loudly and ignored warnings from the police. Stabroek News was unable to contact Kissoon yesterday.

One Linden resident stated that the opposition’s activist actions were uncalled for and reflected poorly on the party. The resident said that the handful of party supporters that accompanied Kissoon did not behave in a similar manner.

Kissoon, who has strong support in Region 10 has had a contentious relationship with her own party in recent months. Following an altercation between her and PNCR General Secretary Oscar Clarke at the People’s National Congress headquarters in Sophia, Kissoon was suspended from the party. She refused to appear before a Disciplinary Committee citing several reasons including that the process was not fair.

According to a source within the APNU+AFC coalition, Kissoon’s behaviour is “counterproductive” and the party should be distancing itself from her as her behaviour seems to contradict the clean campaigning that the opposition is aiming for. The source told Stabroek News that Kissoon’s behaviour only became known to members of the party after it was published in two of the dailies yesterday.

Kissoon had also disrupted a presentation by Minister in the Minister of Finance Juan Edghill at the February 23rd flag-raising ceremony in Linden.