THERE was poor public response to the protest march the main opposition People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) mounted in Georgetown yesterday and at least one main store shut its doors as the group moved along Main Street.

The closure of the store was in response to fears triggered by the looting and attacks that accompanied similar protest marches the party organised in the city several years ago, but police kept a close watch on the marchers.

The throng led by PNCR and Opposition Leader Robert Corbin and several senior party officials was estimated at some 100 at its highest point.

The protest march was intended to draw public support for claims by the PNCR and other groups that testimony by a witness in a court case in New York related to confessed drug trafficker Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan has implicated Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy and the Guyana Government.

Mr. Corbin and others struggled to mobilise the handful of supporters assembled at Joseph Pollydore Street in Lodge for the march which got going way past its 09:30 h start.

There were last minute attempts to galvanise supporters but these proved futile as people refused to join the PNCR march.

The number of marchers remained static throughout the route which went south and then north into the city.

PNCR Executives in the march, Volda Lawrence and Basil Williams, tried but failed to swell the numbers even in traditional party stronghold areas such as Lodge, Charlestown and Albouystown.

One woman said, ‘I don’t have time for nonsense. Me ain’t flogging no dead horse.’

The march ended at Parade Ground where Corbin addressed the gathering which remained at about the same as the group that participated in the march.

Government spokesmen have argued that the political antics of the opposition parties over the last week are as a result of political in-fighting as the PNCR and the Alliance for Change (AFC) seek to outdo each other in the face of a strong government.

One noted that with the PNCR Congress due later this month and with the crisis of leadership within the party, Corbin is trying to be seen as militant and belligerent.

The antics in the National Assembly last week when Corbin sought to put aside the business of Parliament to discuss a motion on the ongoing case of Roger Simmels, the former lawyer for Roger Khan, were politically expedient, it was stressed.

Corbin, after his attempts to disrupt the business of the Assembly was aborted, threw down several of the law books of Guyana before he and his fellow PNCR members stormed out of the Chamber.

It was noted that the PNCR is in disarray and the current political climate being perpetuated by the opposition is toxic and such political instability is often associated with crime and violence.

Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, on a panel discussion aired by the NCN TV over the weekend, said that these extra-parliamentary protests provide the opportunities for political extremists to ratchet up the action, affecting the progress that Guyana has made over the past few years.