Ms. Sheron Vanessa Smith, Chairman of the Lancaster-Hogstyle Neighbourhood Democratic Council and candidate in the Local Government Elections, Constituency 6, was arrested last Sunday on allegation she removed People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) flags.
Smith was with her colleagues doing campaign work within the Manchester/ Ulverston constituency, on the Corentyne, East Berbice
She was held at the Whim Police Station from about 5 p.m. Sunday and released about 11:00 a.m. Monday and was forced to sleep on a bench. On Monday she was released on $20,000 station bail and was represented by attorneys-at-law Khemraj Ramjattan and Amanza Walton-Desi.
Her colleagues, who spoke with Village Voice News, said no one from their team removed the PPP/C flags which were being put up on lamp posts in coalition-A Partnership of National Unity and Alliance for Change- (APNU+AFC)- strongholds.
According to them, they were campaigning in the Manchester/Ulverston constituency, a traditional stronghold of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), when they saw the PPP/C flags being placed on the lamp posts and a police vehicle driving behind, either handing off or picking up those that fell on the ground.
The canvassers said when the PPP/C was putting up their party flags on lamp posts in front of persons’ home they were told, “sorry, not here” because coalition supporters cannot go into PPP/C areas such as Whim, Auchlyne, Letter Kenny, Bloomfield, Tain and Port Mourant and act in similar manner.
Persons in the area told this publication they asked the PPP/C not to put up their flags in front of their yards, but the PPP/C continued.
Member of Parliament, Ms. Coretta McDonald, who was with the team campaigning told this publication the PPP/C is engaging in acts of provocation. When asked if the APNU is going into PPP/C’s stronghold to campaign or put up their flags, the response was no.
According to her “even though the PPP/C preach ‘one Guyana,’ we don’t have a one Guyana. When Mr. [Bharrat] Jagdeo goes to Babu Jaan and riles up their supporters with his racist statements it has made it difficult for coalition supporters to go to these persons’ homes, talk with them and not be met with hostility.”
Going further the MP said “don’t forget it was Jagdeo, in 2019, who told his supporters when coalition supporters come into their areas they must ‘walk behind them and chase them out.’” McDonald said PPP/C supporters still remember what Jagdeo told them and act upon it. “When coalition supporters go into their areas there they are being chased.”
During the PPP/C exercise on Sunday a police vehicle was driving behind the party’s vehicle, carrying flags and picking up those on the ground.
