One-man protest angers PPP protesters outside GECOM

Last Updated on Monday, 1 June 2015, 17:10 by GxMedia

People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) activists protesting outside the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) were Monday ruffled by a one-man protest staged nearby by a young lawyer.

Gino Persaud, who is a founding director of Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc (TIGI), emerged from his office with a huge placard stating “The back of PPP Corruption is broken.”

“I think that is absolute nonsense that the PPP is getting on with and the back of PPP institutionalized and entrenched corruption has been broken and I am thankful for that,” said Persaud, a one-time member of the University of Guyana Council.

No sooner, a PPP activist Mahendra Romel Roopnaraine emerged with a counter placard stating “Gino & TI supporting rigged elections! Shame!!”   To that, the lawyer said he would prefer not to answer the absurdities of the PPP rhetoric. “I think that it is common knowledge and everyone has accepted that the elections have been free and fair. They need to comment on their track record of corruption over the past 23 years,” he said.

Persaud contended that the PPP, which has done a lot of wrong things to persons including him, was engaging in a farcical and public relations exercise. “I am mounting a counter protest to the sham that the PPP is engaging in,” he said.

When Persaud took up his position at the corner of Cowan and High Streets, Georgetown, several PPP activists booed and hurled insults at him.

Reacting, PPP Executive Committee member Indra Chandarpal described Persaud as an “idiot” who was focusing on an entirely different issue. “We are talking about an election that has been rigged by GECOM so that what he is saying is immaterial,” he said.

A young activist, who was next to Chandarpal at the time, interjected and urged that Persaud be shot. “He is a clown. He needs to get shoot down.”

The PPP is agitating for a total recount of the more than 400,000 votes cast, contending that fake statements of poll had been used to tally the results.

That party is currently preparing to file an elections petition in the High Court to challenge the results.