IMPACT ON GUYANA

PNCR pickets President’s Office again

Shouting ‘Stop the punishment or we going down Regent Street’ and ‘The hunger is building up— shut the country down,’ members of the People’s National Congress Reform Tuesday staged another protest outside the Office of the President in George-town, Guyana.

Last week, the demonstrators gathered at the same location on Vlissengen Road in the first of a series of protests that the political party has planned.

Tuesday, PNCR Member of Parliament, Volda Lawrence, said that as the protest continues the party "is going to step up the tempo."

"As long as the government continues to turn a deaf ear to the struggles of the people in relation to the 16 per cent VAT, which they cannot live with, the non-appointment of people (who have been acting) for over ten years, land and contract distribution, and the incarceration of Mark Benschop for the last five years, we will continue the protest," the PNCR member said.

Commenting on the relatively small size of the protest, Ms Lawrence said, "It was not more than 20 women who ensured that Mr. Gajraj resign. It is the will you must have and that (will) can move mountains.

"Right now as it stands, the poor people that work in the public service, they are the people who are captured under the present PAYE system…so they are paying their taxes but it is those people outside of that bracket that are not paying their taxes and hence we ask (for a VAT) from as low as five per cent with a progression."

She added that the protest will continue until "our voices must be heard."

Last week, Leader of the Opposition, Robert Corbin, said that the protest action was the beginning of a program by the PNCR designed to combat the lax approach by the administration to the effect of these matters on the Guyanese economy.

Among the other issues that attracted the protest last week were domestic violence, the High Court (Amendment) Bill, crime, and Benschop’s continued incarceration.

With reference to the Benschop trial, the Opposition Leader had said that the High Court (Amendment) Bill, among its other long lists of negative effects, could thwart Benschop’s trial since the Chancellor would have the power to assign a judge.

He described the High Court Bill as a rape on the judiciary, and said it also threatens the Rule of Law in Guyana.

Further, Corbin stated, the Bill created room for political control of the judiciary which, if allowed to continue, will affect the rights of every citizen of the country.

According to Corbin, the passage of the High Court Bill gives the Chancellor the power to interfere in proceedings. That was the last straw, he said, and his party would no longer sit back and overlook those issues.

As the protest prolonged, Tuesday, several ranks from the Guyana Police Force were deployed to the area.

Employees within the Office of the President were occasionally seen peeking through the windows.

However the atmosphere was peaceful as there were no confrontations.

The protest is scheduled to continue next week.

(Kaieteur News)