The Movement Against Parking Meters (MAPM) continued with their second protest Thursday opposite City Hall on Regent Street, Georgetown, calling for the contract awarded to Smart City Solutions (SCS) to be revoked.

The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has signed a 49 year contract with SCS for the implementation of the parking meters. The MAPM is protesting the lack of transparency in the contract, the fact that there was no bidding process for the contract and the exorbitant fees attached to parking.

The planned protested lasted for exactly an hour and ended promptly at 13:00h following the singing of the National Anthem. The MAPM plans to continue their protest even though City Hall is slated to reduce the parking fees, following a meeting with President David Granger and other government ministers on Wednesday night.

Today’s protest saw a number of high ranking businessmen, including Roshan Khan, who believes that the city council hate the people of Guyana.

“They have some thought in their head, some kind of conspiracy that they hate the Guyanese nation; it seem to me that the city government and the government of this country, that they hate the Guyanese people,” Khan told reporters.

Also at the protest were former Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran and political commentator, Freddie Kissoon.

Ramkarran has issued a call for “civil resistance” to the project while Kissoon believes that Guyana’s economy cannot afford parking meters.

“If an economy can afford for people to pay for parking, then so be it. This economy cannot afford, does not allow for its population to pay for parking for the simple fact is, the people who will pay for parking are not in the upper classes only. There are ordinary working people.”

He further noted, “What I think is sad and tragic is that nobody did the analysis six months ago. What is going on here is people fundamentally protesting for something that is impositioning them and that is burdensome to them.” See Samuel Maughn photos below: