| “Govt. lamentations nothing but Cold War rhetoric” A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has not received any cash from the USAID/Guyana – Elections and Political Processes (EPP) Fund,Wholesale Jerseys Cheap, Leadership And Democracy (Lead) Project that Government has been lamenting over, given the US Government insistence on its implementation.This was confirmed yesterday by Leader of the opposition coalition, Brigadier (rtd) David Granger who, in an invited comment, said the only assistance it has received thus far is the facilitation of a public meeting meant to provide voter education on the holding of local government elections.Opposition Leader, David GrangerGranger told this publication that in October last year, he met with Glen Bradbury,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, who is the Chief of Parties for the International Republican Institute, the body USAID procured to implement the project. At that meeting, Bradbury sought to elicit from the coalition’s Leader,NFL Jerseys China, the scope of assistance they would require.According to Granger,NFL Jerseys Supply, the only assistance required was with voter education, given that APNU did not have the resources to roll out any wide-scale programme.The Opposition Leader stressed that the education programme is targeting only the Local Government Elections.According to Granger, Local Government Elections is a complex arrangement involving 71 organs, namely the 65 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils and six Municipalities.He stressed that there is an entire generation of voters who would not be au fait with the system which is mixed – first past the post as well as proportional representation.As it relates to assistance from the project, Granger stressed that the only assistance received was the facilitation of the public meeting held at Anna Regina.“The Government’s lamentation over the project is nothing but Cold War rhetoric,” Granger said.Government’s Chief Spokesperson,Cheap Air Max 270 Womens, Dr Roger Luncheon, at a recent press engagement had described some of the objections made by Cabinet as it relates to the project. He said that the four components of the project were analyzed by Cabinet and one contained major activities that captured a relationship between USAID and individual political parties in Guyana.This,China NFL Jerseys, he stressed, was a source of concern, given that Guyana does not have a public policy by government for the support for political parties. He said that there is nothing like that in the law or in practice and the Americans through the project “invited a profoundly sensitive issue.”Dr. Luncheon said that this is something that has not been dealt with by any post-independent Guyana Government and further “for us represented a usurpation of our authority.”He said that this was drawn to the attention of USAID which was asked to make the overtures and activities to be a relationship between institutions such as Parliament or the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and not parties. |
