ON the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Ballot Box Martyrs, the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) held a road march and wreath-laying ceremony on Tuesday to honour the fallen comrades who had paid the ultimate price in defence of democracy.

Bholanauth Parmanand, 45, and Jagan Ramessar, 17, were shot dead by members of the Guyana Defence Force on the evening of the general elections on July 16th, 1973, outside of the polling station at Number 63 Village, Corentyne, while demanding that PPP votes be counted at the place of poll or a party agent be allowed to accompany the ballot boxes to wherever the military personnel were taking them.

WREATH-LAYING CEREMONY
A formal wreath-laying ceremony was held at the Number 65 cemetery and party members paid homage by the graves of the fallen comrades, which was followed by a road march to the memorial site at Number 63 Village, by PPP/C leaders, members and supporters on Tuesday.
PPP/C Member of Parliament, Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo, who was in the gathering when the horrific event took place, urged the fair-sized crowd to hold onto the events of the past and learn the lessons of the dark days in the history of Guyana.

“CROOKED AS BARBED WIRE”
He said: “These two young men gave their lives for what we take for granted. Comrades before 1992, whenever the polls close after voting, the ballot boxes were taken to Camp Ayanganna where magic happened and all the PPP votes were changed to PNC votes. Elections in Guyana were crooked as barbed wire.”
Mahadeo, also lamented that if the nation ignores the events of the past, it would be a grave injustice to the martyrs.
“There were men, women and children there, simply exercising their fundamental rights. The soldiers came and did not aim at anyone, they just opened fire on the gathering, after Parmanand and Ramessar were shot, they made sure that they were dead before the bodies were taken to the Skeldon hospital,” he recounted.
The MP then castigated the opposition political parties for trying to hinder progress in Guyana while seeking to regain power.
“All progressive things are being objected to because power is sweet and they want to get back into government. Comrades, we don’t want our children to experience the horrors of the past; we want progress to continue,” he declared.
Executive Secretary of the PPP/C, Mr. Zulfikar Mustapha, in his address, encouraged the gathering to maintain their support for the ruling party and ignore the pleas of the opposition, who is seen as a threat to democracy.
“We have taken the sacrifices of the martyrs for granted, to the extent where the naysayers and doomsayers are coming around and trying to fool our people, but comrades we must stand firm. The martyrs were in the prime of their lives and because they stood for their rights, they were killed by agents of the PNC,” he lamented.
Mustapha, then called on the PPP/C supporters to redouble their efforts and rededicate themselves to protect and advance their democracy.
“We must not take democracy for granted because the dark forces are always striving to deny us of our fundamental rights,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, member of the Central and Executive Committee of the PPP/C, Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee in delivering stirring remarks to the gathering, spoke of the days when elections in Guyana were heavily rigged and the army was used as a weapon to oppress the nation in the interest of the People’s National Congress (PNC).
In paying tribute to the martyrs, Minister Rohee reflected on the events that led to their slaying.
“There were there to defend their votes, they did not want their votes to be stolen. The comrades had no guns or pieces of wood in their hands, they had no weapon; all they did was to form a human barricade to prevent the ballot boxes from moving but then the army came to disperse the crowd by firing shots,” he recalled.
Rohee went on to say: “The PNC did their best not to hold free and fair elections in this country and even after Burnham died, Mr. Hoyte carried on with the same nonsense, until he was forced by the American Government and some CARICOM countries to hold a transparent election. He was threatened that if free and fair elections were not held, the PNC government would not get any foreign aid,” he stated.
The minister concluded his remarks by calling on the PPP/C supporters to acknowledge the sacrifices of the martyrs as part of a struggle to maintain democracy in Guyana.
“They are the kind of heroes we must worship, they gave their lives so that today we can freely elect a government of our choice,” he maintained.