Political parties should be allowed to campaign freely in any part of Guyana and the APNU+AFC coalition would not condone any form of violence or damage to political parties’ paraphernalia, says Joseph Harmon, Co-Chair of the APNU+AFC campaign.
Harmon was at the time responding to the reported attack on PPP party activists during the public announcement of their campaign launch which saw PPP/C member Anil Nandlall writing the Commissioner of Police Leslie James requesting an urgent investigation.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday on the sidelines of the President’s annual media brunch, Harmon said that the coalition does not condone any misbehaviour and has always preached unity.
“…we will not encourage such behaviour. We believe in civil campaigning and that is what we have always done. We believe that this country has to be united and unity is our message we have said at our campaign launch and we believe that unity is where this country needs to go,” Harmon said.
He, however, noted that some cases are manipulated and this puts the party in a bad light. As such he said that they would have to investigate to have an understanding of what took place.
Harmon also made clear that his party has never instructed supporters to mistreat members aligned to other political parties.
“These things, even though our leadership have not commented on it and we haven’t said anything about it, these things affect our ordinary citizens… What I can say also is that what has happened now is that you have an atmosphere that has been created by (PPP General Secretary) Bharrat Jagdeo by talking about chasing (out APNU+AFC officials) and so on. So he must understand that when you make these statements there are consequences and these are ordinary people on the ground who don’t require political direction,” the coalition campaign co-chair said, before emphasising that his party does not condone misbehaviour or violence against other parties.
He further contended that whenever remarks are made to leaders of a political movement by another group, supporters often take offence resulting in untoward actions.
“Those statements when you speak to the leaders of the political movement, the supporters take umbrage to it. So Jagdeo has to understand that and (PPP/C presidential candidate) Irfaan Ali has to understand that the statements made on the platform in communities where they have the support, it will have an impact on people in this country,” Harmon stressed.
On Friday, the PPP/C wrote to Commissioner of Police Leslie James requesting an urgent investigation of an alleged attack on party activists during the public announcement of their campaign launch.
In a letter to the commissioner on Friday, Nandlall reported that the attack occurred in Sophia, Greater Georgetown, on the afternoon of January 2nd and he implicated “known PNC/APNU activists,” including Lurlene Nestor, who has since denied the accusations, including the claims that missiles were hurled and threats were issued.
In the letter, Nandlall noted that a truck with a music system and several PPP/C activists was driving through Sophia and announcing the rally to launch their elections campaign.
He alleged that “known PNC/APNU activists,” led by Nestor, blocked the streets and started to hurl missiles at the truck and its occupants and threatened them with violence if they continued with the announcements in Sophia, which is a stronghold of the governing APNU+AFC coalition.
However, Nestor, in a Facebook post, refuted the claims made, calling them “blatant lies” and a racist attack on a predominantly Afro- Guyanese community.
Nestor said she was in Sophia announcing the APNU launch at the same time the PPP activists were there. “The people came out and rallied behind the APNU caravan of excitement, but rejected the PPP and the lies they were peddling. From my vantage [point], at no time did I see anyone attack the PPP’s drive through announcement, at no time did I see anyone behave in anyway [untoward]! I am angry because I was there and did not [see] what is being alleged here,” she wrote.
On Saturday, videos surfaced on Facebook and showed scores of supporters of the coalition preventing a PPP/C-branded vehicle from passing through Laing Avenue. Garbage bins were also placed on the roadway to prevent the vehicle from advancing.
Supporters of the coalition congregated and started to chant “Granger” and declared that they will be voting for him. Coalition supporters also displayed the coalition’s flags and banners in front of opposition supporters. Some activists from both sides exchanged obscene remarks.
Coalition supporters in one of the videos seen by this newspaper questioned the PPP/C supporters about their presence in the community. “What y’all doing in here? Y’all don’t belong here,” one man said, while another pointed out “y’all disrespectful” as he indicated that they were trespassing in a government territory.
While police were called to the location, they were challenged to calm to the crowd and persuade them to allow the PPP/C-branded vehicles to pass. The vehicle eventually reversed out.
Nandlall called for charges to be instituted against supporters of the APNU/AFC who were found guilty of attacking their party activists.
