THE Alliance For Change said it has received credible reports of the alleged bullying and intimidation of its local government candidates and their supporting signatories by People’s Progressive Party activists and operatives.

In a release issued on Wednesday, the AFC said various persons who backed the party’s candidates for the upcoming Local Government Elections have been coerced into visiting GECOM offices to request that their names be removed as signatories. The PPP, the AFC alleged, had also resorted to widespread verbal abuse, threats and victimisation of persons who openly supported the AFC in PPP strongholds in the 2015 national and regional elections, and now for the November 12 Local Government Elections.

“The AFC considers this campaign tactic by the PPP as a threat to Guyana’s democracy, which was sabotaged when the PPP government refused to hold local government elections for some 20 years (1994-2014). The AFC reaffirms its support for GECOM, but calls for this matter to be urgently investigated and for returning officers not to be cowed by the PPP to invalidate any of the signatories, since at this stage the presumption of regularity should apply. “

The AFC said it has demonstrated that it remains strong and urges its supporters not to give in to the PPP’s defeatist tactic. “The AFC will contest Local Government Elections for the first time as an independent party, and anticipates that its candidates will be successful throughout Guyana. The PPP is fearful of AFC’s challenge and is trying to use our party as the scapegoat for its campaign to discredit GECOM and elections in Guyana,” the AFC declared.