A number of residents of Ithaca, West Bank Berbice said that they were horrified and angry that their names were placed on the list of a People’s Progressive Party Civic candidate for their constituency and their signatures forged.

The residents were, up to late last night, hurriedly drafting letters to send to the Returning Officer of the Constituency, stating their objections to their names being placed on the list of the PPP/C candidate and asking for their names to be removed.

One upset resident said: “this is most disgusting and annoying. I am not a supporter of the PPP/C, how could they do this?” The resident added that he and others may bring the matter to the attention of the police, given the implications of their signatures being forged by the person who had wickedly suggested that they were his supporters for the Local Government Elections.

Local Government Elections (LGE) are held in Guyana using a mixed electoral system of Proportional Representation and First-Past-the-Post. Fifty per cent or half of the number of councillors of each Local Authority Area will be elected through the Proportional Representation component and the other fifty percent through the First-Past-the-Post or Constituency component. The upset residents had up to mid-night last night to ask for their names to be removed from that list supporting the PPP/C Constituency Councilor for starters. The police are likely to be approached with respect to the forged signatures.

Meanwhile, the PPP/C, in responding to similar allegations made by the Alliance For Change in which that party accused it of intimidating and bullying its supporters, said the facts are a matter of public record, including reports by the local media corps over the past two weeks, which speak to persons being ‘tricked’ and ‘pressured’ into signing AFC’s List of Nominators.
The PPP said presently, in Region Six, at the Whim/ Bloomfield Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), where Mavis Nagamootoo, the sister-in-law of AFC Executive and Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo, is the leader of the list, a total of 51 persons have submitted sworn affidavits to have their names removed. “Despite the fact that the 51 persons are in possession of sworn affidavits, some of them are being subjected to a confrontation with Mavis Nagamootoo and by the Returning Officer, to have their names removed from the AFC List of Nominators. The persons are afraid of confrontation due to their worries that the Prime Minister’s office will be used by his sister-in-law to target them and take away benefits that they currently access, such as pension and public assistance,” the PPP alleges.

According to that party some of the 51 persons are also being subjected to questioning by the Returning Officer, an act that can be described as intimidation, given the line of questioning.