PPP/C maintains non-violence approach 

As Guyana waits

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has iterated its commitment to a peaceful end of the ongoing electoral process, adding that there would be no organising of its supporters to commit any acts of violence in Guyana.

PPP/C PM Candidate, Retired Brigadier Mark Phillips

These remarks were made by the Party’s Prime Ministerial Candidate, Retired Brigadier Mark Phillips, who was responding to statements made by members of the incumbent A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition.
Attorney-at-Law and APNU parliamentary candidate James Bond on Thursday posted on his Facebook account that the PPP/C was organising rioters from Berbice, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
However, at a press conference later on Thursday, Phillips, a former Chief-of-Staff of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), called the statements irresponsible.
“At no time, did we or do we intend to have our supporters throughout Guyana organise for any violence. And Mr Bond’s statement that PPP supporters in Berbice are being organised to be transported to [Georgetown] for violence, is an irresponsible statement because that will not happen under our watch,” he contended.
According to the former Army Chief, his party has been committed to a peaceful process – a message it has been relaying to supporters since the beginning of its campaign.
“From the time we started our campaign, we communicated to all Guyanese [that] we’re committed to a peaceful process. We’re interested in a peaceful election and whoever wins at the end of this process, so be it. Of course, the process must be in keeping with the laws of Guyana,” he asserted.
Only earlier this week, the PPP signalled its intention to file a formal complaint to the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) against Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo over the provocative language used in a public statement issued on Tuesday.
PPP Executive Secretary Zulfikar Mustapha has since intoned that the international community should view Nagamootoo’s statement as intended to “incite racial strife and animosity among our people”.
As such, he noted that the complaint against Nagamootoo would be “for inciting racial division by spreading inflammatory rumours”.
Mustapha was adamant that “blame for any incident following such a reckless statement will be laid squarely at the door of Nagamootoo and his cronies in the APNU/AFC coalition”.
In his statement, Nagamootoo alleged that a plan had been hatched by the PPP through a front group with tactics aimed at isolating and starving the people of Georgetown – the capital city –which comprises the single largest section of Guyana’s mainly Afro-Guyanese population.
He charges that it was clear that the seditious exercise is to destabilise the country and to promote an armed and racist insurrection in Guyana.
The PPP is contending, however, that anyone with information on any illegalities, or plans to commit an illegality, should take that information to law enforcement authorities.
Moreover, Mustapha pointed out that Nagamootoo’s talk about an “insurrectionary and bloody plan to shut down the country does nothing for our country or our people at this time, except to incite”.
According to the PPP Executive Secretary, “his (Nagamootoo) statement must be roundly condemned by all”.
It was noted that “Nagamootoo’s hypocrisy in claiming concern for Guyana and the Guyanese people is exposed when he pontificates about plans to destabilise the country without any solid evidence, even as his own actions risk doing exactly that”.