After what he described as racist messages allegedly peddled by the A Partnership For National Unity (APNU) during the hosting of Local Government Elections (LGE) on Monday, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has called on the Ethnic Relations Commission to launch an investigation.
Subliminal racist messages, according to General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo, surfaced throughout polling day on a particular APNU-aligned online media entity. In a bid to address such concerns, he called on the Commission to execute its duties and probe such reports.
“On the day of the election itself, we saw some of the vilest campaigns waged by arms of APNU…I hope that the ERC will investigate this. If they don’t, then they will not be fulfilling their mandate…The APNU was putting out these racist messages,” Jagdeo said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The General Secretary added that such instances, done to “drive fear among people”, have been documented by the PPP.
Moreover, he recounted that persons came out to spread rumours in Georgetown, informing persons that the PPP would target vendors and take away properties from residents along the newly beautified Independence Boulevard.
“Lies all day. They were targeting people with racist messages throughout the day. In spite of all of that, they failed miserably to stop the red wave because the wave was real,” he highlighted.
As such, he reiterated his calls for the ERC to do the job that it is mandated to carry out.
This is not the first time the APNU has been condemned for racist remarks. Back in March, Working People’s Alliance (WPA) member Tacuma Ogunseye made a reference to the use of guns in the hands of the Disciplined Services.
Thereafter, People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) parliamentarians Ganesh Mahipaul and Natasha Singh-Lewis, Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine, and Region Four Chairman Daniel Seeram, also took issue with another part of the meeting in which a speaker denigrated the origins of Indo-Guyanese and distanced themselves from the remarks made.
President Irfaan Ali has declared on previous occasions that these actions would not stop his Government from unifying and uplifting Guyanese on this path of development. During this instance, he called for a collective condemnation against those who continue to spew such “dangerous” words.
He had launched the One Guyana mission, which calls on citizens to rally behind an effort towards the unification of Guyana and bridging gaps by reaching out to those in need.
Under Article 212D of the Constitution of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, the ERC has 24 functions – one of which is a mandate to investigate complaints from citizens across the country where acts of alleged ethnic discrimination have been committed. Also, the Commission is mandated to enforce the Racial Hostility Act and the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act.
