Guyana Observer News

Dear Editor,
(SN) Parliament was prorogued in late September, meaning that we now have no parliament and the passage of new laws including those for incurring of new debts must await the next parliament.  However, to ensure that the wheels of government do not grind to a halt, the constitution provides for the executive, including the president and the cabinet, to remain in office until a new government is installed. The government meanwhile assumes a holding mode, sometimes loosely described as a lame duck government. Our constitution does not specify, or indeed restrict, the powers of the government during this holding period. That does not mean the government can do as it pleases. Indeed what it should do is to follow convention and good practice and limit its actions, decisions and expenditure to what the National Assembly approved before prorogation. Accordingly, the decisions they should make and action taken should be restricted to routine, operational matters.

The controversial CEO Michael Zhang while he was speaking at the Marriot Sod Turning Ceremony in Guyana recently.

(KN) Following the revelations in recent days that Shanghai Construction Group out of Trinidad and Tobago has been awarded the contract for building the proposed Guyana Marriott Hotel even more information is now pouring out that the company has a sketchy past and is under investigation in relation to billions of dollars in fraud in that CARICOM sister country. According to reports coming out of Trinidad and Tobago the investigations there have revealed a string of questionable dealings involving Michael Zhang, the Chief Executive Officer of the Company. It was found that while his company was at work on billion-dollar Udecott projects, Michael Zhang, managing director of Chinese firm SCG International (Trinidad and Tobago), received a private cut out of the work at the Ministry of Legal Affairs project in Port-of-Spain from Sunway Construction Caribbean Limited, the controversial Malaysian company now under police probe for alleged links to former Udecott chairman Calder Hart.

  The would be bandits as they await police escort to their newest place of residency in the foreseeable future.

(KN) Three would-be thieves got the shock of their lives yesterday morning as they were caught ‘red handed’ in the act by an armed plainclothes police rank. About 09:15hrs a middle aged female shopper parked her motorcycle in the vicinity of Bourda Street and Orange Walk and entered the adjoining market to make a purchase. The drama soon unfolded unknowing to her. According to eyewitnesses the men pounced on the locked motorcycle as she went into the market and broke into the storage compartment below the seat. They retrieved a purse with an undisclosed sum of money along with her passport and other documents. Unknowing to the bandits their action was being monitored by the plainclothes policeman who was watching them all along from a vantage point mere few feet away.

  Sheila Holder

(KN) Alliance for Change (AFC) executive member, Cathy Hughes, will represent the party at the funeral of founder member of the AFC, Sheila Holder, today in the Cypress Hills Cemetery, Queens, New York. Sheila Holder lost the battle against intestinal cancer in New York last Sunday. According to leader of the AFC, Raphael Trotman, Mrs. Holder’s family is honouring her wishes to be buried in New York. The burial will follow a thanksgiving service celebrating her life at the Church of St. Mark Episcopal/Anglican in Brooklyn. In addition a Memorial Service, details of which will be announced later, will be held in Guyana for Mrs Holder. Locally, tributes are continuously pouring in for the former Parliamentarian and consumer affairs advocate. Holder, 65, was named Prime Ministerial Candidate for AFC but was forced to step down due to her illness. Before leaving Guyana, Holder was hospitalised several times, twice for surgery.

Nazeem Abdool was among four persons charged for the vigilante style beating of three youths.

(KN) Magistrate Nyasha Hatmin yesterday morning remanded to prison a Non Pariel, East Coast Demerara man who was charged in connection with the beating of three youths last Wednesday. Nazeem Abdool, was charged indictably with unlawful wounding, committed on Mark Lustal, 16; Shaquille Answick, 17; and Lancelot Griffith, 16; all of Company Road, Buxton. He was also charged with assault causing actual bodily harm. Abdool was one of five persons who were arrested on Thursday for the incident which took place at Non Pariel. Kaieteur News understands that Abdool was positively identified by the victims. However, the other suspects were released after they had given statements denying their involvement. Late yesterday afternoon, three more men were arrested and charged for unlawful wounding in connection with the same incident.

 Kwame McCoy

(KN) The office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) is in possession of various reports concerning the alleged assault of civilians at the hands of Liaison to the President, Kwame Mc Coy. Among them is one concerning the alleged gun-butting of APNU activist, Clifton Stewart, by Mc Coy some three Saturdays ago, a senior police official disclosed yesterday. According to the official, the report concerning Stewart was sent to the DPP’s office recently. However, Mc Coy has reportedly still not given investigators a written statement on this matter, although he had indicated that he would have done so. Clifton Stewart, the alleged victim, gave investigators police a written statement and a medical document last Wednesday.

(KN) After dem boys ask that question and promise to get visa and free travel to de US, about 5,000 people send in de answer. One man and he wife send in. One write half and de other one write de other half. Dem claim how dem can’t travel separate and if dem win dem want win together. De wife write Rat and de man write Bar. Dem order dem boys fuh put de two answers together. Was a question to de people. Who is de richest Government official in de region? One man claim how he can’t remember de whole name suh he only send in Rat. Some people write Rat Bar and one or two write Rob-Bert. One man write Gutter Rat. Kwame send in one entry wid half de answer and he write de other part and sign Julius name. He claim how he want back a visa and he not leaving Julius behind. He can’t stand de loss.

Dear Editor,

(SN) All voters need to know that their votes will not count if their ballot papers are not properly stamped by the presiding officer. Voters should note the following:

1. You are really voting for two elections – the General Election and the Regional Election. You will be given a ballot paper that is divided by a perforated line into a top section and a bottom section. You have to put a mark for your party on the top part for the General Election, and another mark on the bottom part for the Regional Election.

2. Before the presiding officer gives you a ballot paper, he has to stamp the back of the ballot paper twice – once behind the top section for the General Election, and once behind the bottom section for the Regional Election. If your ballot paper is stamped at the front, your ballot will be rejected.