We urgently need a legitimate gov’t to deal with COVID-19 and fight hunger and hardships

Dear Editor,

The Central Corentyne Chamber of Commerce is appalled at the living conditions of people in various areas of Berbice especially in the new housing schemes and squatting areas. Most of the persons living in these areas are ex GuySuCo workers and casual labourers who work on a daily basis for cash wages. People are punishing and barely getting enough to feed their families. A few of our members saw this first hand in a recent distribution of food packages to some of these families. We are also aware many of the above situations exist in other parts of Berbice and Guyana and these citizens urgently need help.

Business in general in Berbice since before the elections on March 2 was very slow and with the restrictions for COVID-19, lots of businesses have ground to a halt and employees sent home especially in retail and small businesses. The situation is extremely critical and it is getting out of hand since most of these workers are living pay cheque to pay cheque. Help is needed! The present administration is absolutely clueless about what is happening on the ground. Guyana most urgently needs a legitimate government in place to make decisions, to go to parliament and put measures in place to help our people.

Our Chamber is calling on the international community to please help us! Our elections have been hijacked and it is clear to us GECOM will not move urgently to recount the votes and bring this matter to a closure. A decision was made about three weeks ago and confirmed by the Appeals court to recount the votes and up to today nothing tangible has been done. It is simply incredible to see the chairperson of GECOM appearing so clueless to effect a simple recount as outlined in our constitution. We believe a maximum of three weeks is more than enough time to conclude this exercise taking into consideration all precautions for COVID-19 and we are calling on the chairperson to immediately have this exercise started and have the entire process live streamed especially for the foreign observers and CARICOM officials who may not be present. Live streaming is now absolutely essential since the government is maddeningly asking for observers to be quarantined when a simple test on arrival can determine if they are COVID-19 positive or not.

We cannot over-emphasize the fact that we need a legitimate government to be sworn in to deal with COVID-19 and to fight the hunger and hardships that are stalking our country whilst GECOM seems to be completely unaware of the urgency that the elections be completed. We are also flabbergasted and find it totally incomprehensible that the

present administration which has claimed to have won the 2020 elections is putting up roadblocks at every turn to have the recount urgently completed and be sworn in if they indeed won. We are also convinced as mentioned by the Chairman of CARICOM, that certain “forces” are at play that do not want a recount, as such we are most urgently calling on the international community to please do what is necessary to assist us to have to this process completed in a fair and transparent manner, so that a legitimate government can be sworn in and we can all start working on COVID-19 and bring relief to our people.

Yours faithfully,

M. Raffik

President.

Central Corentyne Chamber of Commerce