Guyanese suffering unduly due to illegitimate Govt – Corentyne Chamber

COVID-19 response

The Central Corentyne Chamber of Commerce (CCCC) said that regular Guyanese are being forced to suffer, unduly, as Guyana fights the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), owing to the lack of a legitimate Government.
In a strongly-worded statement, the CCCC said it is appalled at the living conditions of people in various areas of Berbice especially in the new housing schemes and squatting areas. Most of the persons living in these areas are ex-workers of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) and casual labourers who work on a daily basis for cash wages.
They noted that people in the county are barely working for enough money to feed their families. This was observed as some members of the Chamber were out distributing relief hampers to those in need. The Chamber alluded to the fact that many others are in the same position as those residents and called for more stringent relief for these families.
“Business in general in Berbice since before the elections on March 2 was very slow and with the restrictions for COVID-19, lots of businesses have ground to a halt and employees sent home especially in retail and small businesses. The situation is extremely critical and it is getting out of hand since most of these workers are living paycheck to paycheck. Help is needed! The present Administration is absolutely clueless about what is happening on the ground. Guyana most urgently needs a legitimate Government in place to make decisions, to go to Parliament and put measures in place to help our people,” the statement related.
The Chamber sounded a call to the international community to assist Guyana since it believes that the March 2 General and Regional elections have been hijacked. The CCCC, in what appears to be a lack of confidence in the Guyana Elections Commission, said it has become clear that the body has no intentions to move urgently in the direction of a national recount of the ballots cast.
“A decision was made about three weeks ago and confirmed by the Appeals Court to recount the votes and up to today [Monday], nothing tangible has been done. It is simply incredible to see the Chairperson of GECOM appearing so clueless to effect a simple recount as outlined in our Constitution. We believe a maximum of three weeks is more than enough time to conclude this exercise taking into consideration all precautions of COVID-19 and we are calling on the Chairperson to immediately have this exercise started and have the entire process live-streamed especially for the foreign observers and Caricom officials who may not be present. Live streaming is now absolutely essential since the Government is maddeningly asking for observers to be quarantined when a simple test on arrival can determine if they are COVID-19 positive or not,” the CCCC noted.
The Chamber accused GECOM of not being cognisant of the urgency of their role in bringing an end to the elections debacle.
“We are also flabbergasted and find it totally incomprehensible that the present Administration who has claimed to have won the 2020 elections are putting up roadblocks at every turn to have the recount urgently completed and be sworn if they indeed won. We are also convinced as mentioned by the Chairman of Caricom, certain “forces” are at play that do not want a recount, as such we are most urgently calling on the international community to please do what is necessary to assist us to have this process completed in a fair and transparent manner, so that a legitimate Government can be sworn in and we can all start working on COVID-19 and bring relief to our people,” the statement concluded.