Guyana Times - Wednesday, November 2, 2022

APNU/AFC willing to support

on

Norton hints

"Buss Mouth" fatally chopped to head

Konawaruk

Norton Street man busted with meth

bus

Govt

the

Gunmen

Gunmen storm, rob Superbet outlet in Berbice

Three armed men ex ecuted a daring rob bery on a Superbet outlet at Farm, Corentyne, Berbice on Monday eve ning.

The incident reportedly

mer held up and robbed Muneshwar Ramkishun, 33, the operator of the out let of a gold chain and the day's sales which amount ed to $290,000.

After robbing the out

and Novashkar Sahadeo, 27, of Susannah Village, East Canje of his wallet containing US$200 and im portant documents.

Sahadeo, Kedarnauth, Persaud, and Shawn Gobin were at the time in close proximity to the Superbet outlet consuming alcohol when the suspects held them at gunpoint and re lieved them of the afore mentioned articles.

During the robbery, Sahadeo was injured after he was dealt one lash to his forehead with the gun by one of the suspects. The suspects, after committing the robbery, made good their escape on foot into the backlands.

“Dem man start rob bing everybody from the front coming straight to the back. They lash one man with a hammer and bus his head. He kick one of them in the head, about 10 kicks. Then he come to me and where the Superbet is they get Perspex and they knock it and tell me to open the door,” Ramkishun re lated.

collect the money. After he collect the money, he lash the computer screen with the hammer and then he left. Then (they) hit one of dem boys with a gun and then they run out,” he said.

There are reports that other customers were also robbed, including one who had a ring bitten off of his finger.

they run like that, and by we went through the rob bery already, I get sacred.

took place about 20:15h at the business place owned by Deochand Hemchand, also called “Suraj”.

Police stated that on the day in question, three men who were armed with a small handgun and a ham

let, the armed men pro ceeded to rob Permasawar Persaud, 30, of New Street, Cumberland, East Canje, Berbice, of $45,000 in cash; Sookdeo Kedarnauth, 33, of Number 19 Village, Corentyne of his gold chain

Sahadeo was sub sequently taken to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital, where he was treated and sent away.

Speaking with Guyana Times on Tuesday, Ramkishun recalled what took place.

He added that one of the bandits shattered the Perspex and then stra tegically placed the gun through the hole and de manded he open the door.

“I open the door and the man come in and he go to hit me with the hammer and I tell him just go in and

The owner’s wife, Baby Hemchand recalled that af ter realising what was hap pening, she immediately took evasive action.

According to her, she quickly pressed the button for the shutters to close.

“I can’t say what they looked like, but to me some thing was not right – what

I just came out in front and press the door to come down. While the door was coming down, I saw them run in the yard and run to the Superbet and they told everybody to lie down and don’t say anything. One of them run at the boy in front and grab his chain and then he looked at me, but the same time the door was coming down so he couldn’t get me,” she revealed.

The traumatised wom an added that her husband has applied for a firearm licence several times, but has turned down.

farmer arrested, questioned in connection with robbery

Owner of the business, Deochand HemchandSuperbet operator Muneshwar Ramkishun

Owner’s wife, Baby Hemchand

The business owned by the Hemchands

One of the computers that were damaged by the bandits

Winds:

High

BRIDGE OPENINGS

The Demerara

Wednesday, November 2 –12:30h-14:00h and Thursday, November 3 – 00:30h-02:00h.

The Berbice Bridge will be

Wednesday, November 2 –11:30h-13:00h and Thursday, November 3 – 12:50h-14:20h.

FERRY SCHEDULE

Parika and Supenaam departure times – 05:00h, 10:00h-12:00h, 16:00h, 18:30h

Pres Ali urges farmers to put all arable lands in Den Amstel, WCD to use – says concrete roads will be constructed for easy access to farmlands

President Dr Irfaan Ali on Tuesday led an outreach to the West Coast of Demerara (WCD), where a number of current issues faced by residents and farmers were heard and plans for intervention were commu nicated.

The Head of State was accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister Hugh Todd; Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha and Minister within the Public Works Ministry, Deodat Indar.

It was communicated that there were hundreds of acres of arable farmland within the Den Amstel community but there was a significant downturn in production. Further, farm ers stated that prevailing weather conditions have been a bugbear, while some of them also called for additional equipment since they have been chal lenged in producing crops.

The President, while calling for a collective en gagement with farmers, urged that all arable land be put to work.

“We are working for the upliftment of the commu nity. We want to see all the communities prosper. This is why I am asking them now to either come in and see that the lands that are not in production, we can get them into pro duction. That is import ant. That is revenue sit ting down. So, we have to sit with the owners and come up with a mechanism through which they can go back to the land or they can either rent it legally,” the President explained.

Additionally, roads will be developed to ensure that farmers can access these lands. Road works on the Den Amstel sideline dam are almost completed. Another project is being carried out aback the com munity to the tune of $38 million.

“We’re spending a lot of money to upgrade the roads on the other side of Den Amstel, but what we want to do is involve the community, to have more concrete-type roads. It will involve more labour,” Ali noted.

The President and offi cials also took a look at the Den Amstel Community Centre Ground, which has been in a deplorable con dition. He informed that a project was awarded for Bottom of Form upgrades to the ground, the pavilion, and a bridge along with the installation of a basketball court.

“There needs some work on the bridge so I let them also work on doing some work. We have to work on ensuring that this thing is done very quickly now that

we have the weather. And we have to monitor it too,” Ali told stakeholders.

At the Den Amstel Primary School, calls were made for the structure to be repainted and for cer tain facilities to be in stalled.

Chairman of the Den Amstel Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), Kenton Hilliman laud ed the work of the Ali-led Administration for the ini tiatives taken in the com munity.

“I need to extend a firm gratitude to you for the amount of intervention in this community…We are going to profit from it,” the Chairman said.

Region Three (Essequibo Islands- West Demerara) is fast becom ing a hub for investment opportunities in Guyana, especially with the estab lishment of the gas-to-en ergy project, a US$300 mil lion Vreed-en-Hoop shore base facility, new private and public hospitals, and two four-lane highways.

Only recently, Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal had announced that some 2000 families in Region Three will benefit from affordable homes, as Government accelerates its turn-key housing proj ect to meet the demand in the region.

In fact, 7000 house lots

are being developed in Region Three, as part of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C)

Government’s drive to provide 50,000 house lots to Guyanese by the year 2025.

President Dr Irfaan Ali in Den Amstel, WCD

Views

Investment

Partnerships to end GBV

Later this month, Guyana will observe International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Every year, this day serves as a global advocacy effort aimed at preventing and eliminating violence against women. This year’s theme is “UNITE! Activism to end violence against women and girls”.

It is no secret that women worldwide, including those in Guyana, continue to face unacceptable levels of violence in various forms. World Health Organization has estimated that nearly 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced physical and/or sexual violence, mostly by an intimate partner.

Over the years, we have seen countless stories reported in the media of some form of gender-based violence, with women especially being at the receiving end of the beatings; and, in some cases, even ending up dead. Even though the Government and other stakeholders have been engaged in various efforts to bring the situation under control, it seems as if the violence is far from over.

Between 2020 and 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic has further contributed to increased risks of violence, particularly domestic violence, against women. The UN pointed to reports from countries around the world which suggest that restrictions in movement, and social isolation, coupled with increased social and economic pressures, are leading to an increase in violence in the home.

With effect from 25 November to 10 December, during the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, Guyana joined the WHO and other partners in raising awareness about the global need to prevent and respond to violence against women, and provide support to survivors.

However, not many women admit to being victims of violence. According to the Human Services and Social Security Ministry, “Domestic violence remains a taboo, shuttered behind closed doors and only emerging as bloody faces, bruised limbs, broken spirits and dead bodies. Fear of societal judgement, insecurities about children and finances, family pressure and manipulation keep this a hushed conversation, or results in an overwhelming silence”.

As pointed out previously by the Human Services and Social Security Minister Dr Vindhya Persaud, “Violence against women is a heinous crime and a pervasive breach of human rights, yet it continues to be one of the longest, hardest challenges to the world, and involves psyches, attitudes, poverty, cultures, emotional manipulation, substance abuse, and lack of education”.

We had previously called for urgent action to be taken by the Government and other partners to end violence against women. We are pleased that some steps are being taken in this regard. For example, the 914-emergency hotline which links survivors to agencies, advocacy programmes, referral pathways, microenterprise industries, and public-private skills employment database matching, and offers immediate help to extricate women from violent situations.

According to the Ministry, the 24-Hour Hotline Operators will offer support and referral to victims and survivors, family, friends and professionals via an integration of the services available at both the Domestic Violence Unit and the Childcare and Protection Agency.

It was also revealed that social workers have been trained through the Survivors Advocacy Programme to offer emotional support and crisis counselling to victims of domestic and sexual violence, and act on the victims’ behalf when necessary. These are all good initiatives.

Added to these, the EQUAL Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) CDN $2.25 million project, which seeks to safeguard women and girls against gender-based violence (GBV) by empowering them to make decisions about their sexual and reproductive health, was launched.

This particular programme will target vulnerable women and girls in our hinterland regions - Regions One, Seven, Eight, and Nine - in addition to women and girls who are Venezuelan migrants.

We support the Minister when she said at the launching that: “I believe this initiative, another partnership which sees international and local partners coming together to address the key issue of sexual and reproductive health and rights, could not have been timelier. I say this because it is concentrated in Regions One, Seven, Eight, and Nine, where we do acknowledge, as a Government, we need to amplify the efforts that have been made.”

We echo the call by the Minister that better can, and must, be done.

NY Guyana Democracy Project debunks Brooklyn meeting's race charge

Dear Editor, The New York-based Guyana Democracy Project debunks a charge of racism levelled against the Guyana Government by a Brooklynbased Guyanese group at a political rally on October 30 in Flatbush.

At the Town Hall meet ing in Brooklyn, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries and oth ers unjustifiably accused the PPPC Administration of ‘race discrimination’ and other wrongdoings. The accusations are unsubstantiated, the ev idence is lacking. The PPPC Government’s Cabinet reflects the diversity of the country’s population. Not only that, the Public Service, the Police Force, the army, the Prison Service the teaching and nurs ing professions are dominated by Afro-Guyanese. How could this racial discrimination hap pen when these services are more than fairly distributed?

As Guyanese who love our country and who have been following developments in Guyana for decades, we are extremely disappointed that you in the USA could make such careless comments, and we are very concerned that they might unwittingly be cre ating race tension and hatred in Guyana.

The reality is that Guyana has seen the greatest progress in its history during the terms of the PPPC Administration. The Opposition PNCR’s his torical record is that of elector al rigging and incompetence. They governed Guyana for

33 years since 1964, and have very little to show for that pe riod. The most notable rigging by PNCR occurred in the postMarch 2nd, 2020 elections, which the former Jamaican PM Bruce Golding described as a most transparent attempt to steal an election. This bla tant attempt was condemned by the US Embassy, all the Western diplomatic mis sions, the Carter Center, the Commonwealth, the OAS, the Mandela Foundation and 100 countries.

The PPPC, on the other hand, governed for 23 years and brought the country out of bankruptcy and authoritar ianism, and returned it to de mocracy in the 1990s after 28 years of PNCR dictatorship. GDP grew at an annual aver age of 5% under PPPC gover nance.

During the current PPPC term in office (August 2020 to date), the Government has initiated the develop ment and transformative projects in several PNC AfroGuyanese strongholds, as well as in Amerindian-Guyanese communities. Development reaches every community in Guyana. The Government al located, for example, 11,000 house lots so far, and over 50% were given to Afro-Guyanese, even though they account for only 29% of the population. The Government awarded 6,000 scholarships at all lev els, and 39% of those were given to Afro-Guyanese, who account for only 29% of the population.

The current Government is doing a remarkable job, as

attested to by the results of a recent October NACTA Poll, which found approval ratings of President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali at 72% and Prime Minister Mark Phillips at 71%.

In contrast, the approv al rating for Mr. Norton, the Opposition Leader (who is also the PNCR Leader) is 28%. Clearly, the population approves of the performance of the Government and disap proves of the performance of the Opposition.

It is noted that none of the other political parties and representatives of the other race groups have accused the

PPPC Government of racial discrimination, and the other groups account for 31% of the country’s population, a per centage higher than the AfroGuyanese population of 29%.

Clearly, the charge of racial discrimination in Guyana un der the PPPC Administration is not borne out. Attorney General James, Congressman Jeffries and others, you must not allow yourselves to be mis led by the organizers of the Oct 30 rally.

Sincerely, Guyana Democracy Project NYC

Standard of cricket commentary may be lifted

Dear Editor, I am happy to note that Sean Devers is going to be part of the Super50 commentary team for the Guyana matches in Trinidad. This is welcome news, as live cricket com mentary, namely radio, is really in rapid decline.

Devers goes back to the mid-90s, and so has expe rience on his side, and it seems as though things will get better where radio commentary is concerned.

Now, I do have a few things to say regard ing this noble profession, which has recently fall en into disrepute. First, I note that Sean Devers made his first-class de

but as a commentator at Blairmont in 1995, and this was “…with the help of Naim Chan, one of the best Guyanese Commentators” (is how Kaieteur News puts it). So, I assume that Naim Chan would feature along side one of his proteges.

Where Devers is con cerned, he has played the game at a high level, and I feel very strong that this would lend intimacy to his coverage. Regarding Naim, he is still Guyana’s top com mentator. Over the last few weeks, the call was made for him to help establish a cadre of commentators who can serve Guyana’s cause in years to come.

The US Embassy’s Civil Affairs team collaborated with the NGO Humanity First Guyana to provide medical assistance and equipment for over 100 wonderful senior citizens of Linden on Tuesday. In this US Embassy photo, Ambassador Sarah-Ann Lynch is seen interacting with a resident as the latter is being checked by a medical personnel

Preliminary figures show local suppliers earned over $129B from oil sector in 2022

Since the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) Government brought the Local Content Secretariat (LCS) into operation in January 2022, prelimi nary figures show that Guyanese suppliers have earned over GY$129 billion from the oil sector.

This was revealed in a statement from the Secretariat. According to the regulator, it has also issued some 354 Local Content Certificates to Guyanese suppliers of the nation’s oil and gas sector.

Director of the Secretariat, Martin Pertab, was quoted in the statement assuring that the unit continues to work alongside and engage with contractors, sub-con tractors, licensees and Guyanese suppliers to en sure that the goals of the Local Content Act are met.

“Local content, he un derscored, “gives Guyanese businesses a fair oppor tunity to directly tap into and benefit from Guyana’s multi-billion-dollar petro leum sector. Although not yet complete, the Director

Director of the Local Content Secretariat, Martin Pertab

noted that preliminary as sessments show that local content earnings from this year alone are well above GY$129 billion.”

“This massive figure represents 23 per cent of Guyana’s GY$552.9 bil lion budget for 2022 – the largest recorded budget in the nation’s history,” the Secretariat further ex plained in the statement.

A Guyanese national or Guyanese company is sued a certificate by the Secretariat receives pref erential treatment in the award of contracts by the oil companies and their sub-contractors. This doc ument confirms that the Secretariat is satisfied that the holder of the cer

tificate is a Guyanese na tional or Guyanese compa ny.

Oil companies and their sub-contractors are also more incentivised to uti lise vendors who were ap proved by the Secretariat. When registering with the Secretariat, which is free of cost, suppliers are asked to submit certain crucial documents, depending on the type of proprietorship.

Once those neces sary documents have been lodged, applications go through a rigorous screening process by the Secretariat’s Registration Unit. This system, accord ing to the Secretariat, is designed to filter out com panies that wish to flout the spirit of the law.

“Internal assessments show that Guyanese com panies supply goods and services across 37 of the 40 areas ringfenced for nation als in the First Schedule of the historic and innovative Local Content Act.

“In keeping with the provisions of the legisla tion, all certified Guyanese companies are published via the Local Content

Register – a website that the general public can eas ily access,” the Secretariat said.

Meanwhile, a break down of the services Guyanese provide to oil companies includes rent al of office space and ac commodation, equipment rental (crane and other heavy-duty machinery), surveying, pipe welding, blasting and coating – on shore, construction work for buildings – onshore, structural fabrication, waste management (haz ardous & non-hazardous), storage services, janitorial and cleaning services.

Other services include catering, food supply, ad ministrative support and facilities management ser vices, immigration support services, work permits, laydown yard facilities, cus toms brokerage services, export packaging/crating, preservation and inspec tion, pest control/extermi nator services, cargo man agement/ monitoring, ship and rig chandlery, and en vironmental services and studies.

They also provided

Gunmen storm, rob Superbet...

dits who also beat him with a cutlass resulting in his hospitalisation.

Meanwhile, the Police have confirmed that one

transportation on truck ing ventilation (private, commercial and industri al), industrial cleaning se curity services, ICT net work installation. There were a number of support services, such as manpow er and crewing, dredging, local insurance, legal and medical services, aviation engineering and machin ing, and local marketing and advertising services.

And since last month, the Secretariat has said that almost all the com panies operating in the oil and gas sector have complied with the Government’s new stipula tion that they must pay lo cal suppliers for goods and services within a 30-to-45-

day period.

In September, the Natural Resources Ministry, through the Secretariat, had modified the five-year local content plan of major oil operators to ensure that contractors and sub-contractors is sue payments to Guyanese suppliers within 30 to 45 days following the receipt of a correct invoice.

This was after numer ous complaints were made about prolonged delays, as much as 90 days, in the payments for goods sup plied or services rendered to major players in the oil and gas industry – an issue that had been engaging the Government’s attention.

“We have a liquor restau rant here; we have a gro cery shop that operates every single day and ev ery single day people com ing from all over – people coming from Skeldon, New Amsterdam, Canje... My husband put in three times for a firearm and they are telling him nothing; they are pushing him around. These fellows come from nowhere and they have guns in their hands and we are doing all of this and we can’t get one,” she add ed.

Further, one of the vic tims told this publication they had several calls to the Luis Mamer Police Outpost, which is a stone’s throw away, but were told that there was no patrol at the time.

The owner of the busi ness believes that he is being targeted, as this is the fourth time since 2019 bandits have carried out a robbery at his premises.

“It is very bad to know that people keep coming and robbing we. I can’t understand why. We are not rich; we just have a small business. We have an IMPACT Police base over there and the only thing they could solve is domestic problems; they do not have a vehicle there and they do not have peo ple with guns there. Any time you call on them in an emergency, they cannot respond to you,” the busi nessman said.

In May 2011, Hemchand had a piece of his ear chopped off by ban

farmer was arrested and is being questioned in con nection with the robbery as investigations continue. (Andrew Carmichael)

Standard of cricket..

Naim’s training for, and experience in, sports broad casting have shaped him into the presenter he is. With Devers at his side, Naim would be able to raise the lev el of potential and present commentors, where the latter have been ‘sucked’ into ‘bawl ing’, and cannot make use of pauses and silence.

I revisited Munesh Dutt’s “Live cricket commentary in shambles - a lost art,” where he says that he was ‘incensed’ and took ‘great umbrage’ with cricket commentary in the Caribbean, and more so in Guyana. His lament was that the ‘authorities that be’ seem bent of finding ‘pals’ and ‘past players’ to do the job, when real, live cricket commentary demands some exceptional skills.

I guess someone is listen ing and acting now to restore this wonderful ‘specialised’ profession. This would trans late to Dutt’s desire (and mine too) of the weeding out of “the cacologies that are just too fre quent and numerous; the de

fectively produced speech; so cially abhorrent enunciation; and nonconformist pronun ciation.” I guess that, over all, listeners would be treated to ‘realistic ‘ball by ball’ play, where ‘use of language’ would be grammatical and appropri ate, so that followers can ‘see’ the game as it unfolds.

My hope then is that Minister Kwame McCoy would search for and appoint ‘experts in the basic use of language’ to address issues so that “…quality and profes sionalism (would not be far) removed from internation al standards and expecta tions. Lots of people are hop ing for some level of change, as live cricket commentary is supposed to be education al as well as enlightening. In the current tenure of Minister Kwame McCoy, quality and professionalism are too far removed from international standards and expectations. He needs to act.

Yours truly, Prescott Mann

06:00 (Sign on) Inspirational Time

06:30 Cartoons

07:00 Evening News (RB)

08:00 Stop Suffering

09:00 The Final Table

10:00 Tiny House Hunters

11:00 Paternity Court

11:30 Divorce Court

12:00 Movie -

14:00 Raven's Home S3 E7

14:30 The Haunted Hathaway S1 E8

15:00 Indian Soaps

16:00 Henry Danger S4 E3

16:30 Game Shakers S1 E13

17:00 The Young & The Restless

18:00 Jeewan Ki Roti

18:30 CNN

19:00 The Evening News

20:00 Stop Suffering

20:30 Brooklyn Nine Nine

21:00 Stranger Things S2 E2

23:00 Manifest S1 E8

23:30 Grace & Frankie S2 E3

00:00 Sign off

The shattered Perspex

FROM PAGE 4

Feedback from participants on electoral reform consultations positive – Min Teixeira

of the consultations. She also noted that Attorney General Anil Nandlall, who gave an overview of the bill, spoke for a little over one hour.

“The AFC forgets that in this electronic age, records of the time are captured.

First of all, I spoke for seven minutes in my opening; the Attorney General was asked to do an overview of the draft laws and rationale behind the amendments, he spoke for 1 hour and 15 minutes. After this, he began the examina tion of the draft amendments to the acts,” she explained.

Contrary to re ports from the Opposition, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, is maintaining that the feed back from those who partic ipated in the recent consul tations on electoral reforms was generally positive.

Last week, the Government held consulta tions on draft amendments to the Representation of the People’s Act (ROPA). During the consultations, Opposition members walked out. They subsequently criticised the consultations and how much time was allowed for partici pants to air their grievances.

In a statement on Monday, Minister Teixeira defended the exercise and noted that, contrary to reports from the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC), she only spoke for seven minutes at the start

“We then took a break at 2:50 pm and concluded after 5:00pm The APNU/AFC rep resentatives: Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan, Mr. Roysdale Forde and Ms. Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, walked out only one hour after the con sultation began,” Teixeira ex plained.

The time Teixeira and Nandlall initially spoke for left over two hours, during which a number of the par ticipants posed questions and concerns, and made recom mendations for the bill. In fact, Teixeira noted that the feedback from participants regarding the consultations was largely positive.

“The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance is pleased to have hosted this consulta tion, which included repre sentatives of faith-based or ganisations, political parties, Private Sector and other civil society organisations and ac tors,” the Minister said.

“Contrary to the response

by the AFC, the feedback re ceived from the consultation participants was especial ly positive, as they noted to have found the session infor mative and enlightening, and they appreciated being invit ed and included in the ongo ing electoral reform process,” the Minister further said.

During a press confer ence on Tuesday, Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton de fended the Opposition repre sentatives’ decision to walk out of the consultations. He repeated what the AFC had said, that enough time was not given to participants.

“When you get to the ac tual consultations, if you set up a three-hour consultation with you claim over 100 peo ple, and two Ministers talk for two hours in a 90-min ute session, there is little to

no scope for you to become in volved in meaningful discus sions,” Norton said.

“And when it was rec ognised by the Opposition team that (they) were bent on talking all the time, our dele gation left, and correctly so,” Norton said, claiming that they have been meeting with stakeholders and providing their position on electoral re form.

The consultation, which was live-streamed from the Arthur Chung Conference Center, in fact, lasted for four hours. The consultation that was undertaken has been described as an integral el ement of the Government of Guyana’s commitment to im plement a consultative, in clusive and participatory process regarding electoral reform.

The Ministry had said in a previous statement that the stakeholder consultation formed part of a continuous consultative process, which began on November 6, 2021 when the Ministry published the draft RoPA (Amendment) Bill on its social media pages.

As such, the public was invited to peruse the draft documents and submit feed back to the Ministry with in six weeks. However, after requests for extensions, the Ministry accommodated sub missions of feedback well into 2022.

Recommendations were received from a variety of stakeholders, including civ il society actors, the Guyana Elections Commission, some political parties, and inter ested individuals and organ isations. These recommen

dations were consolidated and provided to the Attorney General, who, in May 2022, facilitated in-person meet ings with the respondents.

Updated versions of the RoPA Bill and Regulations have been made available once again, and the new draft amendments to the National Registration Act have also been made accessible for public perusal via a link published on the Ministry’s Facebook pages. To this end, 157 organisations were in vited to the consultation on October 25.

These organisations rep resent a broad cross-section of society, including political parties; constitutional bod ies; civil society organisations in the labour movement; Private Sector, faith-based, youth, women, LGBTQ, eth nic/cultural, health and reha bilitation organisations; and other civil society actors.

Opposition members Khemraj Ramjattan and Tabitha Sarabo-Halley walking out of last week’s consultations

Norton defends Opposition walking out of consultations

Parliamentary Affairs and Governance

Minister Gail Teixeira

Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton

CoA sets December 7 for election petition case management hearing

– parties to prepare, file record of appeal by Nov 22

The Court of Appeal (CoA) has set December 7 for the Case Management Conference (CMC) that has to be con ducted before the appeal of the April 2021 dismissal of the second election petition challenging the results of the March 2, 2020 elections can be heard.

This date was set on Tuesday by acting Chancellor Justice Yonette CummingsEdwards and Appellate Judges Rishi Persaud and Dawn Gregory. Additionally,

the Appeals Court set November 22, 2022, for the preparation, filing, and serv ing of the record of appeal.

Claudette Thorne and Heston Bostwick, the peti tioners, are seeking to have the results of the March 2020 General and Regional Elections invalidated on the grounds of serious non-com pliance with the Constitution of Guyana and electoral laws as it relates to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM’s) conduct over the polls.

Playin’...

…NY politics in GY

There’s an old and venerable saying in the US that “all politics is local”. Well, last weekend we saw this playing out in spades, when NY State AG Letitia James showed up at a so-called “Guyana Diaspora Townhall” meeting last Sunday. Your Eyewitness dubs it “so-called” because it was a case of mutual backscratching that typifies NY’s incestuous “Tammany Hall Politics”!! That name was given to a backroom-dealing NY political organisation back in the 19th century that used immigrant ethnic communities – notably the Irish – to deliver block votes to corrupt politicians. It’s back, or has it never left?

This time – with the Nov 8 mid-term elections a week away - it was the bait of Guyanese immigrants that drew James and a number of NY politicians (or reps) to the event. They wanted an audience of “simple” immigrant voters, and the Guyanese grifters wanted to show they had “influence” with American politicians!! James is from Park Slope - like the previous “big gun” Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, who’d been aimed at our local politicians by using the race card – and is suddenly running scared to hold onto the AG’s position!! So, she deigned to show up at the affair!!

Up till then, she’d hardly campaigned, since she believed - with her “national” reputation garnered from going after Trump and his family in NYC – she was unbeatable. She had a war chest of US$10M versus a paltry US$0.4M for her Republican opponent Henry!! But in the last week, he’s been creeping up on her – moving from 16% behind to 11%.

And this was all due to her not only not doing much to dent the rising personal violent crime rates in the City – while making it easier with her espousal of a “cashless bail law”!!

The MC emphasised she couldn’t stay long because she is in the midst of campaigning!!

Anyhow, what exactly did she say?? Well, for one, she’s gonna work with other Democrat AGs from other states and make sure “anti-Black racism” is ended here!! Did those Guyanese in the hall really think State AGs can squeeze foreign governments on their domestic policies?? That would make them really backward Tammany Hall cannon foddera hundred years after its heyday!! James also blared: “I also want the officials to know that if any harm comes to Rickford Burke - let me say that again: if any harm comes to Rickford Burke, or anyone in this room - there will have to be answers. We will immediately demand answers, and I can tell you that someone will be held accountable for those answers!!”

So, she’s guaranteeing Burke’s safety when she can’t protect thousands of New Yorkers from muggings –especially on the subways??

What a drip!!!

…off Venezuela

Your Eyewitness has always preached that the watchword for our foreign policy has gotta be “there are no permanent friends of permanent enemies – just permanent interests”. And if we need a reminder, we just gotta look at our good friend the USA’s actions. Back in 2019, they backed Guaido as the “real” President of Venezuela – since Maduro had gamed the elections. Fifty countries supported Guaido, ambassadors were accepted, official Venezuelan bank accounts were frozen, etc.

But there came the Ukraine War, and the US decided that sanctions should be imposed on Russian exports – the largest of which are oil and gas. And suddenly, the entire world economy – including the US’ - turns topsy-turvy!! And the US can’t have this, can it?? No siree, Bob!! What to do?? Well, first of all, they gotta ensure that their own supplies aren’t threatened. And this is where Venezuela comes in. With the LARGEST oil deposits in the world – 300 billion barrels!! – they must be swayed.

The stick didn’t work; so, here comes the carrot, and out goes Guaido!!

…with Musk

Now that Elon Musk has finally taken over Twitter, does this make him the Chief Twit? His major asset is Twitter’s user base - 400 million hopelessly addicted users – so he’ll be a richer Twit!!

Attorney-at-Law

Roysdale Forde, SC

Providing treatment without discrimination a fundamental pillar in healthcare delivery – Dr Hamilton …says Ministry working to end inequity in hinterland

that these issues have not gone unnoticed.

“We still have a lot of challenges in regard to the delivery of services, in which those in the hinterland will tell you that there are in equities with what they re ceive as compared to persons living on the coastland. That

has not gone unnoticed…,” she disclosed. “A lot of the efforts by Government, and by extension the Ministry of Health, are working to wards reducing that inequi ty,” she detailed.

For the year 2022, the Government injected a whopping $73 billion into

the healthcare sector. This is an enormous increase over the $53.5 billion inject ed in 2021. From this fig ure, $1 billion was set aside for upgrades to health cen tres in efforts to elevate pri mary healthcare services.

Dr Hamilton has posit ed that to have a healthy

population, the entire fam ily must be taken into con sideration, where men play an important role. A key is

sue that has been under the microscope has been fami lies without fathers, she ex plained.

Director of Family and Primary Healthcare Services, Dr Ertinesa Hamilton

services with out discrimination has been a funda mental pillar of Guyana’s delivery of health services, and persons can be assured of this treatment when they access Guyana’s healthcare services.

Offering

This is according to Director of Family and Primary Healthcare Services, Dr Ertinesa Hamilton, who on Monday made reference to Article 149 of the Constitution of Guyana, which speaks to equal access to services without discrimination, re gardless of whether a per son is a Guyanese citizen or not. She noted that this en sures that everyone visiting a health centre is treated without discrimination.

“As long as you’re in Guyana, you have access to free health services, regard less of which facility you go to. The services will be the same for everyone, regard less of sexual orientation or sex, whether you are a citi zen of Guyana, or not. That is our basic, fundamental pillar on which we operate,” Dr Hamilton asserted.

At the same time, the se nior health official explained that work has been ongoing to end inequities in the hin terland, as she reiterated

Norton Street man busted with meth at bus park

Forty-one-year-old

Delon King of Norton Street, Wortmanville, Georgetown was on Monday busted by officers of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit, (CANU) in the vicini ty of the Route 48 bus park, with a quantity of metham phetamine in his possession.

“A subsequent search was conducted (on his per

son), revealing a quantity of transparent Ziploc bags con taining a clear, crystal-like substance suspected to be methamphetamine,” the drug enforcement body has said in a statement.

As such, King was ar rested and escorted to the CANU Headquarters, where the drug, when weighed in his presence, amounted to 88.6 grams. Investigations are ongoing.

CoA sets December 7...

They are being repre sented by Senior Counsels Roysdale Forde and John Jeremie, as well as Attorneys-at-Law Selwyn Pieters and Mayo Robertson. Their petition was dismissed on April 26, 2021, by act ing Chief Justice Roxane George.

In June 2021, Forde ap pealed to the appellate court against the Chief Justice’s decision. Asked in August 2022 what was causing the delay in the hearing of the case, Forde had told Guyana Times that the record of ap peal is not prepared, because the court does not have the Chief Justice’s written deci sion. He had also indicated his intention of filing an ap plication to have the election petition hearing expedited.

The motion for the expe dition of the appeal was duly filed by Forde and heard by the appellate court on October 3. The trio ruled in favour of the motion, noting that their reason for doing so was because of the public in terest nature of the case.

Dismissal

The petitioners have contended that Section 22 of the Elections Law (Amendment) Act and Order #60, also known as the Recount Order, violated the Constitution of Guyana. However, in dismissing the petition, the Chief Justice had held that the petitioners failed to present evidence to support that the conduct of the elections contravened

the Constitution and elector al laws.

She ruled that nei ther Section 22 nor the Recount Order was ultra vi res the Constitution, add ing that Article 162 of the Constitution empowered GECOM to take whatever actions were necessary to conclude the elections, in cluding embarking on a re count of all ballots.

Alluding to the events that occurred after the close of polls, Justice George not ed, “Given the difficulties, it does appear that it would not have been prudent for GECOM to declare the re sults in the peculiar circum stances that accompanied the completion of the process of the March 2 Elections. A combination of Article 162 (1) (b) of the Constitution and Section 22 confer the power upon GECOM to is sue this [Recount] Order if GECOM considered it neces sary or expedient to ensure impartiality, fairness, and compliance… as regards the election process.”

But coalition lawyers in their appeal contended that Justice George erred in law when she ruled that Section 22 of the Elections Law (Amendment) Act 2000 and Order #60 made thereunder were not in violation of the Constitution.

According to them, by vir tue of their application for the election results to be de clared invalid, both Section 22 and Order #60, which flowed directly from Article

162, were in conflict with and/or contravened Article 177 of the Constitution.

Previous petition

Both of the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU/ AFC) election petitions have been dismissed by the acting Chief Justice. In January 2021, she had dismissed the APNU/AFC’s election pe tition, which was filed by Brennan Nurse and Monica Thomas owing to their non-compliance with effect ing service on President David Granger.

The party appealed her ruling to the Court of Appeal of Guyana, which by a ma jority decision on December 21, 2021, held that it had ju risdiction to hear an appeal against a ruling of the High Court to dismiss an election petition on the basis of pro cedural impropriety.

In so doing, the Court of Appeal rejected arguments by Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, SC, that the court had no jurisdiction to hear and determine the appeal, neither from statute, the Constitution nor does it have an inherent jurisdiction.

The certified results from the recount exer cise supervised by GECOM and a high-level team from the Caribbean Community (Caricom) pellucidly showed that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) won with 233,336 votes over the coalition’s 217,920.

From left: Acting Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justices of Appeal, Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud

Growing demand for Guyana’s eco-tourism met with tangible investments – PM

Placing

Guyana on the pedestal as a premi um eco-tourism des tination has seen increased attraction from tourists, and the Government will contin ue to invest in this tradition al sector.

Prime Minister Brigadier (ret’d) Mark Phillips took this position on Tuesday at the launching of Tourism Awareness Month, done at the Watooka Guest House in Linden. In attendance were Tourism, Industry and Commerce Minister Oneidge Walrond; President of THAG, Harrinand Persaud; Chairman of the Region 10 Tourism Committee, Devin Sears; and Mayor of Linden, Waneka Arindell, among others.

The PM has voiced that this year’s theme, ‘All Sectors, One Tourism’, re inforces the Government’s commitment to inclusive de velopment through its ‘One Guyana’ policy.

“It is no coincidence that this year’s theme is remi niscent of President Ali’s One Guyana vision, as there

is a direct connection. One Guyana centres on the no tion of unity: one country with one future. If we are to truly enjoy prosperity as Guyanese, we must now go forward with a mindset of unity and wholeness. So, when it comes to tourism, boosting all our sectors to create one dynamic destina tion sets us apart and bol sters our country’s develop

ment,” Phillips expressed.

According to him, sums of money are being injected to develop the traditional sec tors, as Guyana also benefits from its vast oil revenues.

“The revenue stream is there. We will develop all the traditional sectors, and we see tourism - specifical ly eco-tourism - as one of the traditional sectors in Guyana, and we will contin

ue to provide the necessary resources to develop that sector…,” he declared. “In Guyana, our tourism is vast and unique, boasting natu ral, ecological, and even ag ricultural attractions that have been calling visitors to our shores for many years.”

As Guyana continues to attract attention from the wider world, the Government has always placed tourism as a priority, given its develop ment potential and Guyana’s natural portfolio, he added.

“As Guyana continues to attract the attention of the wider world, we have al ready committed to investing in our people through capac ity building and hospitality management, quality assur

ance and other critical ar eas as we prepare for an in flux of tourists ready to take in the magic of ‘Destination Guyana’. The evidence of our increased attraction is clear: our country received 103 per cent increase in tourists as of 2022, compared to the same period for 2021. While the pandemic did affect visitor numbers last year, this year the numbers are still signifi cant, and even more promis ing for the second, third, and definitely fourth quarter,” the PM added.

Further, he said that as the Government actively works to make Guyana a pre mier destination for eco-tour ism, areas such as Linden are becoming more popular as tourism hotspots.

“Linden and other attrac tions are quickly becoming more familiar and attractive to the wider population of Guyana, and we applaud the growing interest. Already, the prospects are greater for Linden’s tourism following a $30 million investment last year as part of the Linden Waterfront Development Project,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Minister Walrond related that the main focus is now to devel op the country, after com ing out of the pandemic and withstanding the harsh ef fects which followed. There will be deliberate efforts to ensure that this year’s cal

endar of events is hosted all across the 10 administrative regions, she has promised.

“We come to these places because we believe that we must increasingly take some of our major national events and observances outside of the capital and bring them to the people, wherever they are all over the country. With this, we increase your na tional and international pro file, which is invaluable to tourism and brings economic activity to the regions. Thus, economic benefits go all over the country, and not just the coastal and capital regions,” Minister Walrond has said.

Director of the GTA, Kamrul Baksh, highlight ed that, for this month, a multitude of partnerships would materialise, such as Restaurant Week, and a number of tourism opera tors would create special dis counted packages.

Large-scale survey, mapping of Guyana’s land surface begins

In an undertaking of significant importance, authorities have com menced an aerial survey and mapping exercise across the country, using the latest light detection and ranging, or LIDAR, technologies.

The Guyana Lands & Surveys Commission (GLSC) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) on Tuesday announced that activities would be conduct ed in the coming weeks with international expertise provided by Medici Land Governance (MLG) and its partners.

The aerial survey will use an aircraft carrying LIDAR sensors and mapping camer as to collect highly-accurate and detailed LIDAR and or thophoto maps of the land surface within targeted re gions.

The data collected will be processed to produce digital terrain models and map im agery for extracting infra structure, water features, and 3D building models.

The resulting data would then be entered into key lay ers to update the national base maps, which are more than 50 years old.

At the end of this exer cise, in excess of 500 square

kilometres of the urban ised land area, nearly all of Guyana’s urban footprint, and over 15,000 square km of the rural areas will be surveyed using this new technology.

GLSC Commissioner Enrique Monize explained that even though LIDAR has been used before in Guyana, this is the first large-scale activity that also combines traditional imagery with

that of LIDAR for mapping purposes in the country.

This activity is part of the objectives of the Sustainable Land Development and Management (SLDM) proj ect, which seeks to advance technology in land manage ment and development. The project is being implement ed by GLSC and the FAO with funding from Guyana’s REDD+ Investment Fund.

Attendees at the launch of Tourism Awareness

2022

Prime Minister Mark Phillips

Ramsammy’s Ruminations

Fake “winning” SoPS, fake poll, rigged party elections –Norton carries the PNC’s mantle

GECOM has announced December 12 as Nomination Day for Local Government Elections scheduled to be conducted on March 13, 2023. Even as Guyana prepares for Nomination Day, the Commission of Inquiry established to inquire into the events from March 2 to August 2, 2020, a period in which the incumbent Government tried to rig the March 2, 2020 elections’ results, is set to begin the inquiry. Local newspapers have been carrying full-page advertisements calling on Guyanese to come forward and testify and give evidence. Those who were engaged in the shameful events that took place in plain sight of the whole world will find every reason to boycott the CoI. Avoiding giving evidence is not the shocker; the shock will be they actually show up.

The people who most ought to be ashamed of what took place between March 2 and August 2, 2020; the people who carry the shame of rigging elections like an albatross around their necks; keep reminding us of their ugly, sordid behaviour and history. For the past two weeks, MP Annette Ferguson has been publicly complaining about how the PNC rigged one of its Georgetown Party Group elections. Last week, the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the PNC (APNU/AFC) spoke of a mysterious poll he claimed the PPP commissioned showing that the PNC will beat the PPP in any coming election.

When asked who did the poll, what the details were, and what his source was, Aubrey Norton basically insisted it was not anybody’s business.

Why would a political party want to hide a poll that showed them winning public support, especially at a time when that party’s own staunch supporters have lost confidence in the party’s leadership to advance their political prospects in this country?

This is the same scenario with the infamous but equally mysterious “winning” SoPs. They claim they had and continue to have their copies from the various polling stations, that showed they won the elections. No one else had those “winning SoPs”. Not the returning officers, or GECOM, or any other party’s election day staff, or observer; those mysterious “winning” SoPs were somehow signed by everyone and only given to the leaders of the PNC. The obvious question is: Why hide the “winning” SoPs? It is over two years now, and the PNC refuses to show anyone the “winning” SoPs. Even the then incumbent President, David Granger, also then the Leader of the PNC and APNU/AFC, admitted never having seen “winning” SoPs…

During the recount, they had every opportunity to show that their “winning” SoPs were different from the results the original count and the recount showed. But they hid their “winning” SoPs more than Fort Knox hides its gold reserves in the USA. In fact, it would be easier to somehow get around the world’s most extensive and tight security to get into Fort Knox than to get into the “vault” that is storing the PNC’s copies of the “winning” SoPs from the March 2, 2020 elections. Now we add the mysterious new poll to the secret documents that any other political party anywhere in the world would jump up and down and beat their chests to show people.

The truth is that the “winning SoPs” are a made-up mirage. The truth is: just like the fake “winning SoPs”, the mysterious poll that Norton spoke of is a fake. One would think that anything that reminds people of the ugly, brazen crime of stealing an election would be things that Norton and the PNC would want to stay away from. But the brazenness of this group in the PNC is unfathomable. There were former and present Prime Ministers from Caricom and from Africa, observers and the international media, UN representatives and the Diplomatic Corps. Everyone saw the travesty of the PNC trying to fool people. When they could not change the numbers in plain sight, they raised the crazy idea that the dead got up from the cemetery and cast votes for the living.

Citizens have shown they are not stupid, as Norton and the PNC think they are. The CoI will reveal even more ugly truths from March 2 to August 2, 2020. It is good that every citizen knows the whole truth. It is good the world sees that the Guyanese people would neither accept nor tolerate anyone trying to mess with our elections ever again. Our LGE is on schedule. The PPP, as a political party, is, as it has done even in those days when rigging was a forgone reality, ready to actively participate in every NDC and municipality. The AFC is trembling in its boots; the PNC are looking for a place to hide. They know that not participating puts them on a path to diminishing returns.

They know that participating will prove they have become marginal in the minds of the citizens of Guyana. The PNC know that their race-baiting mantra will not work in the LGE 2023. In the midst of all this, they have conducted party group elections that have their own members accusing them of rigging internal elections. Talk about shooting themselves in the foot!

Our bright future is honed in the ONE GUYANA trajectory that is being led by President Irfaan Ali himself. Without a strong, participatory democracy, our bright destiny is bound to stay hidden like the PNC’s “winning” SoPs”. With a strong democracy built on ONE GUYANA, our future is guaranteed.

Govt reinforces the need for persons to get booster shots

Government has stressed the need for persons to take their booster shots to main tain the level of effective protection against the var ious strains of coronavirus.

Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony on Tuesday stated that administering the booster shots through out the country remained a challenge.

The number of persons receiving booster doses is much lower than anticipat ed, thus more persons are being encouraged to take these doses.

“For vaccination, we do between 150 to 200 doses per day and currently, in terms of booster doses, we have administered 75,496 doses,” the Health Minister said.

He disclosed that 1435 boosters have been ad ministered in Region One (Barima-Waini), 3362 in Region Two (PomeroonSupenaam), 10,350 in Region Three (West Demerara-Essequibo Islands), 37,344 in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), 4394 in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) , 12,109 in Region Six (CorentyneEast Berbice) , 972 in Region Seven (CuyuniMazaruni), 1177 in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), 3453 in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) , and 900 in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).

Dr Anthony noted that in some regions, people have not been coming forward to take the booster dose, “and we want to encourage them. Without these boost er doses, their immune sys tem will not be primed. We have been encouraging old er people to make sure that

Providing treatment without...

“One of the discussions we’re having has a lot to do with consequences of father lessness, in which you have women and children who are left at the mercies of others, and who, as a consequence, also have to deal with sexu al and domestic violence be cause of these situations,” Dr Hamilton relayed.

One of the main impact indicators that the Ministry of Health observes is the life expectancy of its population. In 2017, the life expectancy of men was 63.5 years, while that of women was 68.5 years. That figure remains unchanged for men in 2022, but has increased for women to 71 years.

“Our life expectancy for the country has moved from 67 in the year 2017 to 70 in the year 2022. The life ex pectancy of the population between men and women are different,” she explained.

9

they come out and get their booster doses”.

As it relates to persons receiving the booster doses by age category, Minister Anthony pointed out that 738 were within the 12-17 age category; 12,420 be tween 18 and 29; 12,027 persons between 30 and 39; 27,999 persons between 40 and 59; and 22,312 for per sons 60 years and older.

“The older persons and

those who really need their boosters, we need to do more work in that age category, because they stand to ben efit the most. So, I am hope ful that we can encourage more people to come out, es pecially, older people and people with comorbidities to come out and get their booster shots,” the Minister explained.

Dr Anthony is appealing to persons with other chron

ic illnesses, such as diabe tes, hypertension, and heart conditions, who are more susceptible to COVID-19, to get their booster doses. Meanwhile, he stat ed, “over the last 24 hours, we have identified one new case, and currently we are tracking 14 new cases of COVID across Guyana.”

Dr Leslie Ramsammy

Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony

Sophia bridge, roads to undergo major rehabilitation following ministerial visit

Major infrastructural works involving roads and bridg es being rehabilitated have been announced for ‘B’ Field, Sophia, Greater Georgetown.

This community had been prom ised this facelift following a minis terial visit by Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal; Tourism, Industry and Commerce Minister, Oneidge Walrond; Minister within the Public Works Ministry, Deodat Indar; and Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister, Kwame McCoy.

A technical team has already in spected the infrastructure, and ac cording to Minister Deodat Indar, most of the roads need immediate in tervention. In some cases, there ar en’t any paved thoroughfares, just an alley for people to walk.

“We went through all the cross streets apart from the main access road. On the main access road, there is a piece of about 300 feet with con sistent failures, where there is no road actually, just a little asphalt with dirt. It is slipping into the trench. That needs immediate atten tion,” Minister Indar has said.

“The cross streets where the resi dents are living, especially one street where there is a daycare centre, need

immediate intervention. Most of the places we came across here, save for a few roads, need immediate at tention. There is no road, just a free space with mud that people walk in,” he outlined.

The ‘Blacka’ Bridge, measuring approximately 40 feet in length, is on the verge of collapse, and cannot withstand heavy vehicular traffic.

Coming out of this inspection, Minister Indar announced immedi ate interventions to fix the dilapidat ed structures and provide better in frastructure to residents.

“We have to look at what enve lope of spending we have to see how much we can do, when we can do it, and how we can start the implemen tation of the works…,” he explained. “Our Government’s philosophy is that every community will be uplift ed, so we have to make sure that we do our part here.”

Works to be undertaken in this community include those to be done on the bridge, which, until it is com pleted, would be replaced with a by pass in order to facilitate the travers ing of vehicles.

Indar shared. “You can’t just shut off the community from crossing; so that is what has to happen here (in stallation of a bypass), to ensure smooth flow of traffic and building at the same time. A lot of time, some thing that is meant for good turns out bad, so you got to make sure that (does not) happen here,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Minister Croal point ed out that a team from the Housing and Water Ministry would return to the community to work with resi dents occupying the Government re serve, since the current main road

needs to be widened. Persons occupy ing the reserve would be relocated in order to facilitate these developmen tal works.

“We will work with those resi dents occupying the reserve, because we need much wider use of the cur rent road. The road helps to ease some of the traffic from going onto Sheriff Street. We have a new hous ing scheme that is opening…so we will work immediately with those persons here to have relocation and removal on the reserve itself,” Croal has told the media.

Inspection is being carried out across the community, and residents are being engaged on current issues

APNU/AFC willing to support Govt on changing laws to include biometrics for voting – Norton

The A Partnership for National Unity/ Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition Opposition would be willing to support the Government if it brings legislative and con stitutional changes to the National Assembly to include biometrics as a requirement for voting.

Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton made the coalition’s position known during a press conference on Tuesday. During the press confer ence, Norton reiterated that his party wants biometrics, which generally includes bi ological data such as finger prints, to be made a condition for persons to vote.

The only requirements for someone to vote, as set out in Articles 59 and 159 of the Constitution, are that that person must be 18 years or

older, and must be a Guyanese citizen or a Commonwealth citizen resident and domiciled in Guyana.

It was pointed out to Norton that any deviation from this could set the stage for the elections to be over turned, as occurred in 2001 in the Esther Perreira petition that sought to overturn the results of the 1997 General and Regional Elections due to the use of ID cards. According to Norton, however, the law can be changed with support of the APNU/AFC.

“We can go to Parliament and change the law, and all the issues they would have (been) raised (can) become passe… If the Government comes with a proposal to give credible list so we can get credible elections, the Opposition will work with them on the issue.”

Norton was also reminded that the Opposition has a his tory of not cooperating with the Government on various issues, such as the composi tion of the Natural Resource Fund committees.

... hints that this will make Opposition more amenable to other issues

Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton

APNU/AFC willing to support...

Despite the investment and oversight committees being appointed months ago, the Opposition are yet to submit their nominees, as the law provides for. However, Norton said the changes to the Constitution that his party is calling for could open the door for them to cooperate on other issues.

“It might very well pave the way for us to cooperate on other issues. But you’re not going to seek to domi nate and control and want us to cooperate. So, you can say to the Government, ‘This is a good opportunity for you to engage the Opposition’, and once we can get over that hurdle, you would have cre ated conditions propitious to getting over the other hur dles,” Norton said.

This comes even as the Government is prepar ing to embark on constitu tional reform consultations early next year. The con stitutional reform process would be spearheaded by the Constitutional Reform Commission once it is set up, and it will allow stake

holders to make suggestions on much-needed areas of re form in the Constitution.

Back in August of this year, the Government pre sented the Constitution Reform Commission Bill 2022 in the National Assembly. It seeks the estab lishment of a Constitution Reform Commission to re view the country’s supreme laws.

According to the provi sions of the Bill, the com mission will review the Constitution to provide for the current and fu ture rights, duties, liabili ties, and obligations of the Guyanese people. It is man dated for that purpose to re ceive, consider, and evaluate submissions for the alter ation of the Constitution, and report its recommen dations to the Standing Committee for transmission to the National Assembly.

In conducting the re view, the Commission will also consider the full pro tection of the fundamental rights and freedoms of the Guyanese people under law;

the rights of Indigenous peo ple of Guyana; the rights of children; eliminating dis crimination in all forms; and improving ethnic relations, while promoting ethnic se curity and equal opportuni ty.

According to the ex planatory memorandum of the Bill, the proposed Constitutional Reform Commission would consist of 20 members who would be drawn from the govern ing People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), the Opposition A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC), and one member from politi cal party A New and United Guyana (ANUG).

One member each would also be drawn from the Guyana Bar Association, the Labour Movement, the National Toshaos Council, the Private Sector, repre sentatives of women’s or ganisations, youth organisa tions, Christian, Hindu and Muslim organisations, as well as a nominee represent ing farmers.

GPHC launches investigation into death of Mahaica woman, unborn child

The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) has launched an investigation into the sudden death of a 39-yearold mother of five, Navita Maraj of Helena Mahaica, East Coast Demerara (ECD, and her unborn child.

Maraj passed away while in labour at Georgetown Public Hospital on Saturday. It was reported that the pregnant woman was under observation at the medical facility two days prior to her death.

She was reportedly sup posed to have given birth via caesarean section, and two days before her due date while attending the clinic at GPHC, she was told that she would not re turn home but would be ad

mitted to the hospital where she would remain under ob servation until her time of delivery.

At the time, the woman’s

family said she was not experiencing any labour pains. However, later that day, Maraj took a turn for the worse and was given Oxytocin tablets to induce labour.

The following day, the family said they received a call from GPHC, informing them that they should go down to the hospital urgent ly. When they arrived, they claimed that they were told that the woman and her child had passed away.

According to the woman’s family, after learning of her death, they kept receiv ing conflicting information from the hospital about her demise. They claimed that even the post-mortem examination did not reflect what the GPHC team had

told the family.

When contacted on Tuesday, GPHC Public Relations Officer Chelauna Providence related that an investigation has been launched into the incident and it was expected to be completed at the end of the week. However, so far, the post-mortem examination revealed that the woman died from a uterine rupture (spontaneous tearing of the uterus that may result in the foetus being expelled into the peritoneal cavity).

“We are still investigat ing that matter ,and we ha ven’t concluded that inves tigation as yet… we have been getting a lot of inquir ies about this case, so def initely the investigation should be completed before

the week is out,” she ex plained.

While the investiga tion into this case is still ongoing, the hospital has concluded an investigation into the death of Reshana Dindayal and her newborn baby who died at the GPHC last Wednesday after she al legedly fell and hit her head while she was heading to the washroom.

Dindayal, who was ex pecting her third child, was reportedly taken to the hos pital on Wednesday mor ning after she began to ex perience labour pains.

The woman's family claimed that after arriving at the hospital, she was ad mitted and was told that she was in stable condition.

Dindayal's relatives were

subsequently informed that after they left the hospi tal, she was heading to the washroom unattended when she fell and hit her head, and became unconscious.

A Caesarean Section was then performed on her, but shortly after, she and her baby girl died.

The family claimed that a post-mortem examination, which was performed on the body of the woman last Friday, failed to determine the cause of death.

Meanwhile, the hospi tal’s officials said that based on their investigation, the woman fell because she suf fered cardiac arrest.

“Our preliminary find ings found that the patient had very poor prenatal, she neglected to go to the pre natal clinic. We’ve record ed two prenatal clinic vis its up until her admission. We also found that she was using harmful substances throughout the pregnancy which would have contrib uted to her poor state of health.

“In addition to that, the family was claiming that the patient went to the wash room and fell, when in fact the patient had a cardiac arrest while she was at the hospital, which would have resulted in her falling”.

“It is not a case where she slipped and fell, but she suffered a cardiac arrest…,” the hospital claimed.

Ayoungman who has only been identified as “Buss Mouth” was on Tuesday killed by a gang of men during a drinking spree.

The incident occurred at Konawaruk, Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni). Reports are that the victim and the group of men got involved in an argument during which “Buss Mouth” was chopped to the back of his head.

“It’s a lil’ gang that does always come out deh on the landing, always hot up the landing, always beating

somebody, always running down somebody, always cre ating the problem,” someone from the area told Guyana Times

This is the second mur der that has occurred in Potaro-Siparuni in a matter of months.

In August, 28-yearold Rosmarisf Revolledo Torres, also called “Mary”, of Caracas, Venezuela, who operated a drinking spot at Mowasie Landing, Konawaruk, Region Eight, was shot dead during an al tercation.

– autopsy proves mother died from uterine rupture

Dead: Navita Maraj

Dead: Reshana Dindayal

“Buss Mouth” fatally chopped to head at Konawaruk

Dead: “Buss Mouth”

Buttler, Curran fire against New Zealand

ignite World Cup campaign

Ten days into the Super 12s, England final ly turned up at the T20 World Cup and deliv ered a clinical performance in a must-win game against New Zealand at the Gabba. Victory in their final group game against Sri Lanka on Saturday should be enough to send them through, bar ring a significant net run-rate swing.

Jos Buttler chose to bat first on a used pitch and pro duced his first significant in nings of the tournament, making a superbly-paced 73 off 47 balls after two reprieves to set up England’s total of 179. He became England’s leading scorer in men’s T20Is in the process, on the night he won his 100th cap.

New Zealand, who would have qualified for the knock out stages with a win, looked well-placed in the chase. After 14.4 overs, they were

119 for 2 as Glenn Phillips, picking up from where he left off against Sri Lanka, dom inated a 91-run partnership with a slow-scoring Kane Williamson.

But unlike in last year’s semi-final in Abu Dhabi, a game which loomed large over Tuesday night’s match in Brisbane, England managed to strike regularly towards the end: Ben Stokes removed Williamson, Mark Wood rushed James Neesham, and Sam Curran closed out the win with a superb spell at the death.

New Zealand’s net run rate is healthy enough that they will almost certainly qualify for the semi-finals by beating Ireland by any mar gin in their final group game, while Australia’s title de fence is hanging by a thread on home soil: they either need to beat Afghanistan and hope England fail to beat Sri

Businessman Shahab Hack, an ardent sup porter of youth de velopment and communi ty relations, has donated several footballs, gear and personal supplies to the Tiger Bay female futsal team.

This donation, made last Saturday, October 29, in Queen Street, Tiger Bay in the presence of the team’s coach, Alpha Fletchman, team’s captain Afena Baptiste, and family members and supporters of the players, came at a time when the team were gear ing up for their first game in the MVP Sports’ female futsal tournament.

Hack, who has always been at the forefront of similar initiatives, and who usually supports com munity engagements and youth development initia tives of the Guyana Police Force, mentioned that af ter attending the ‘Men on Mission Conference’ host

ed by President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, he felt a need to fulfil his corporate obliga tion, and as such, he decid ed to start with the Tiger Bay community.

He added that he in tends to have similar ini tiatives in vulnerable com munities throughout the country, and plans to pro vide mentorship and guid ance to the youths of those communities.

“My wish is to be able to play a meaningful role in their academic lives as well as sports, so that each of these youths could re alise their full potential,” Hack has said.

Team captain Afena Baptiste expressed grati tude to Hack for the timely and much needed supplies, and noted that her team mates are surely apprecia tive of this kind gesture.

first in a T20I once in his last five-and-a-half years as cap tain. Under Buttler, there has been a shift: they have now won seven out of eight completed games when bat ting first since the start of July, and have posted at least 175 every time.

After a relatively quiet start, seeing off Trent Boult and Tim Southee’s new-ball bursts, Alex Hales took charge in the second half of the pow erplay, racing to 37 off 25 as England took 48 from the first six overs. He hit the first ball of the fifth over straight back over Southee’s head for six, then hit back-to-back bound aries through the off side.

Williamson thought he had taken a huge catch to dismiss Buttler for 8 in the final power play over, diving low to his left to snaffle a miscue off Mitchell Santner, but replays confirmed

just above par.

Phillips on fire Buttler threw Moeen the new ball and was near ly rewarded with the wick et of Devon Conway, who dragged his back foot be hind the crease just before Buttler whipped the bails off after Moeen beat him on the outside edge. Buttler him self was key to the wicket when Conway did fall, fling ing himself low to his right as Conway attempted a pad dle-scoop off Chris Woakes.

When Finn Allen fell to Curran’s short ball, pick ing out Stokes on the rope, New Zealand were 28 for 2 after five overs and strug gling, but Phillips was quick ly up and running. He start ed streakily, inside-edging a 96mph/155kph Wood thun derbolt - the quickest ball of

chance, and when Phillips crunched three sixes over the short midwicket bound ary in quick succession - one off Wood, and two in a row off Rashid - it looked as though it would prove a costly drop.

Clutch Curran Stokes, who had hurt his left index finger while tak ing the catch to dismiss Allen, removed Williamson in his only over, the ball steered to Rashid at short third, and Buttler sensed an opportuni ty. He brought Wood back for the 16th over, a move vindi cated by Neesham’s miscued pull, which Curran settled underneath at deep midwick et and celebrated with a roar as he turned to the crowd.

Woakes, whose 19th over in the 2021 semi-final had cost 20 runs, then struck at the death as England closed

the ball had squirmed through his hands and hit the ground before he snaffled it at the sec ond attempt. He apologised, and said afterwards: “I knew I’d bobbled it and thought I’d squeezed it into my chest… a little bit embarrassing in the end.”

England struggled against spin through the mid dle on a used pitch which of fered plenty for Santner and Ish Sodhi, who took 2 for 48 in eight overs between them. Hales was stumped while charging Santner after reach ing a 39-ball half-century, and Buttler was dropped again on 40 when Daryl Mitchell put down a straightforward chance off Lockie Ferguson.

England scrape past par England shuffled their batting line-up, with Moeen Ali promoted to No. 3 with a licence to take down spin and Dawid Malan ending up as low as No. 8. Moeen holed out to long-on before Buttler reached a 35-ball fifty, while Liam Livingstone’s bright cameo was ended by a bril liant Ferguson yorker as he at tempted back-to-back scoops.

New Zealand dragged things back with regular wickets: Harry Brook was caught at long-on looking for back-to-back sixes, Buttler was run out and Stokes was pinned lbw by Ferguson, but England’s lower-middle order kept on swinging and scram bled up to 179, which looked

the World Cup to date - past his leg stump, and then sur vived thanks to an inexplica ble drop from Moeen.

Facing Adil Rashid, Phillips skewed a leading edge straight to Moeen at cover, who seemed to take his eye off the ball or lose it in the lights. He failed even to get a hand to a straightforward

in, having Daryl Mitchell caught at long-on off a slow er ball by Chris Jordan, on as a substitute fielder for Livingstone. Curran then re moved Phillips to end the game as a contest, again caught by Jordan, and closed it out with a combination of yorkers, bouncers and slower balls at the death.

Fall

(Devon Conway, 1.6

2-28 (Finn Allen, 4.6 ov), 3-119 (Kane Williamson, 14.5 ov), 4-126 (James Neesham, 15.4 ov), 5-131 (Daryl Mitchell, 16.6 ov), 6-135 (Glenn Phillips, 17.3 ov)

BOWLING O-M-R-W

Moeen Ali 1-0-4-0 Chris Woakes 4-0-33-2

Adil Rashid 4-0-33-0

Sam Curran 4-0-26-2 Mark Wood 3-0-25-1 Liam Livingstone 3-0-26-0 Ben Stokes 1-0-10-1

Lanka in Sydney, or thrash Afghanistan to ensure they

overtake England on NRR.

Buttler sets England up Under Eoin Morgan, England were a chasing team: he did not choose to bat

England celebrating

Jos Butler connecting a reverse sweep off Ish Sodhi

Glenn Phillips did a repair job for New Zealand

The Tiger Bay female futsal

Guyoil/Tradewind Tankers Schools Football League…

Dolphin, West Ruimveldt script big wins in final leg

The seventh and fi nal leg of the Guyoil/ Tradewind Tankers Schools’ Football League got underway at the Ministry of Education (MoE) Ground on Sunday last, and both Dolphin and West Ruimveldt Secondary schools have romped to victory.

So convincing were their wins that these schools have each made a strong case for themselves to avoid the bot tom of the League.

In the first game of the afternoon, West Ruimveldt were tasked with oppos ing the hapless Friendship Secondary, who are now end ing the league without a sin gle win. Elijah Sattaur of West got the ball rolling with a goal as early as in the 5th minute. After completing

his double in the 17th, Mark Thomas arrived at the scor ing party in the 18th and later added another in the 26th. A brace also came from Nickolas James in the 60th and 70th to complete West Ruimveldt’s 6-0 win.

That game was followed by another one-sided game, this time with Dolphin thrashing North Ruimveldt Multilateral 14-0. Jamal Williams led the charge for the Smyth Street outfit with 4 goals, while both Nicholas Tappin and Jude Charles registered hat tricks. But the scoring did not stop there, as Requan Kerwin, Gerry Burnette, Jaquan Cole and Caldwell Peters each added a goal to the Dolphin tally, which was a mammoth 14-0 at the end of the game.

The Guyoil/Tradewind Tankers Schools Football League in progress

The final two games in the Guyoil/Tradewind Tankers League will be played on Sunday, November 6th, at the same venue. The first game will see Cummings Lodge

taking on President’s College, and the second would be the grand final between Golden Grove and Christianburg Wismar Secondary School, starting at 6pm.

Sri Lanka keep campaign alive with win against Afghanistan

keep Afghanistan on a leash

Sri Lanka kept Afghanistan on a leash in their game, making frequent breakthroughs be fore partnerships could tru ly blossom, thus holding the Afghan run-rate in check.

Led by Wanindu Hasaranga, whose outstanding 3 for 13 was most responsible for hin dering the opposition, Sri Lanka conceded only 144 for 8 on a decent batting track.

There was an early wob ble in the Sri Lanka chase when Pathum Nissanka was out for 12. And as the new ball swung and Mujeeb Ur Rahman delivered excellent early overs, they could mus ter only 28 runs from the powerplay.

However, Dhananjaya de Silva waited patiently for opportunities. He built a slow partnership with Kusal Mendis first, ensuring that Sri Lanka did not haemor rhage top-order wickets as

they are out of the reckon ing for a semi-final spot. Sri Lanka's hopes remain alive, though they are slim. Not only must they beat England in their next game to have a chance, other results must also go their way.

Afghanistan's solid start

Having flayed Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup, Rahmanullah Gurbaz seemed to be getting into his work again, particular ly when he lofted Lahiru Kumara down the ground in the third over to hit the game's first six. He was on 28 off 23 at the end of the powerplay, and Afghanistan had a platform, having made 42 for no loss. But first ball of the seventh over, Kumara nipped one back into Gurbaz to knock back middle stump. And Afghanistan did not have a partnership that touched 30 for the rest of the

- with a googly in the 20th over, which brought Sri Lanka two wickets and cost only three runs. He was electric on the field, as usual.

De Silva takes control

De Silva was two off seven at the end of the powerplay, then 12 off 15 later. But with only a modest to

29 off 16.

Rashid's bad day

In truth, Rashid bowled well, get ting Kusal Mendis in his first over, before hav ing Asalanka caught at longon in his third. One of the boundaries he conceded to de Silva was also the result of an inside edge. But, by the

end of his spell, Rashid was visibly frustrated at not hav ing made a greater impact (his figures were 2 for 31), and then things got worse. As he slid to stop a ball on the boundary with Sri

Maheesh Theekshana 4-0-33-0

Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva 4-0-13-3 Dhananjaya

Sri Lanka (T:

BATTING

Pathum Nissanka

Mujeeb

Kusal Mendis

Gurbaz

Dhananjaya

Charith Asalanka

they had done in the two pre vious games. Then, in the company of Charith Asalanka and Bhanuka Rajapaksa, he began to produce sweet ly-struck boundaries before finishing with 66 not-out off 44 - his best T20I score. Sri Lanka thus strolled home with nine balls to spare.

Only Rashid Khan and Mujeeb took wickets for Afghanistan, each claiming two. For them, the loss means

innings.

Hasaranga's masterclass

You wouldn't think this was the guy who went at over 17 runs an over just two matches ago. In this game, Hasaranga bowled the sev enth, 11th, 14th, and final over of the innings, took three wickets, and did not concede a single boundary. He took special pleasure in bowling his opposite number - Rashid

tal to chase, he did not pan ic, even when the required rate had crept to above eight at the halfway stage. In the 11th over, de Silva nailed a slog sweep off Rashid Khan for six, and that was when his own innings, and that of the team, switched into a higher gear. He hit 54 runs off the last 29 balls he faced, launch ing Mohammad Nabi for a six into the sight screen, crack ing seamers over the covers, and sending the spinners leg side. It was his partnership with Asalanka that really broke the game open for Sri Lanka. The pair made 54 off 34 together, de Silva hitting

Lahiru Kumara 4-0-30-2

Omarzai

Bhanuka

†Rahmanullah Gurbaz

Mujeeb

Dasun Shanaka

Extras (lb

TOTAL 18.3 Ov (RR: 8.00)

Did not bat: Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva, Pramod Madushan, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha, Lahiru Kumara Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Pathum Nissanka, 1.6 ov), 2-46 (Kusal Mendis, 7.5 ov), 3-100 (Charith Asalanka, 13.3 ov), 4-142 (Bhanuka Rajapaksa, 17.6 ov) BOWLING O-M-R-W Fazalhaq Farooqi 3.3-1-22-0 Mujeeb Ur Rahman 4-0-24-2 Fareed Ahmad 2-0-25-0 Rashid Khan 4-0-31-2 Azmatullah Omarzai 2-0-17-0 Mohammad Nabi 2-0-16-0 Gulbadin Naib 1-0-12-0

Lanka on the cusp of victo ry, his knee got stuck in the soft turf of the Gabba, and he appeared to have picked up a painful injury, and had to be helped off the field.

(ESPNCricinfo)

Dananjaya de Silva kept Sri Lanka in front in the middle overs

Najibullah Zadran had a lot to do after taking back-to-back wickets

Sri Lanka celebrates

Local players shine at GTT Guyana Open golf tournament

ment…,” he declared. “Our support to this tournament for the second consecutive year is in part an example of our commitment and devo tion to the development of the game of golf locally. The or ganizing of this tournament and every effort the Lusignan Golf Club has made to engi neer an interest in the sport is very commendable”.

LGC President Patanjilee Persaud thanked the players for their sterling effort, and said the LGC executive con tinues to work aggressively towards new initiatives that would develop the sport, in cluding improvement of the already scenic golf course.

TheGTT Guyana Open golf tournament con cluded with a bang on Sunday evening, October 30, at the Lusignan Golf Club on the East Coast of Demerara. Guyanese play ers Avinash Persaud and Shanella London dominated their international competi tors to secure victory in the respective male and female categories.

Limited to 80 partici pants, which included play ers from the United States, Canada, Fiji, Suriname and Barbados, the weekend com petition was played in the format of a medal play over 36 holes, and for the men, Persaud

achieved the best gross and best net scores in the 0-9 category, and the best over all gross in the 0-28 catego ry at the end of the two days with a gross score of 150.

Persaud emerged victo rious ahead of Jalen Raman of Fiji, who scored 152 gross for second place; and Ridel Doekoe of Suriname, who scored 160 gross for third position.

For the females, Shanella London, who walked away with the longest drive on both days, gained a gross score of 171, and emerged victorious ahead of Christine Sukhram of Canada, who placed second with a score of 175, and Julie Stephenson of

Barbados, who placed third with a score of 183.

During a cocktail recep tion for the players, Hilton Wong, Director of Business Solutions for GTT, said the company is devoted to the development of sports, and has demonstrated its com mitment with similar spon sorship to other disciplines.

He added that it was a pleasure to collaborate with the Lusignan Golf Club to stage the tournament, and pledged the company’s con tinued support for LGC and the sport of golf.

“Sport in our country is a pilar of national pride, and we celebrate wins as a feel ing of collective accomplish

School-age athletes book spots at IGG after trials

“We want to continue to host teams with the same hospitality that we are granted whenever we travel to play. You would be aware that the development and maintenance of a course like

this would take tremendous effort and commitment. Our executive continues to work diligently to ensure that we not only maintain this course, but we develop it along with other initiatives

that will continue to attract awareness and love for the game,” he declared.

The GTT Guyana Open golf tournament is the larg est golf competition in the country.

titles

Several school-age ath letes have punched their tickets to the Inter-Guiana Games af ter returning scintillating performances at the trials held on Sunday last at the Leonora Track and Field Facility, WCD.

The usual suspects in the athletics arena: Attoya Harvey, Javon Roberts and Ezekiel Newton, have solid ified their spots; however, some newcomers are emerg ing among the familiar fac es. For instance, footballer Matrim Martin shocked the field in the middle-distance events.

Hosted by the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), these trials were in tended to attract the best of Guyana’s student athletes, and judging by the results, that goal was achieved.

Tiana Springer will be a name to remember for the next few weeks, as she gears up to oppose athletes from Suriname and French

Guiana. Springer took home the gold in the 200M, 400M and 800M events, clocking 24.89s, 54.95s and 2:26.52 respectively. For the 200M, Nalicia Glen clocked 25.48 for second, while Karese Lloyd was third in 25.98s.

CARIFTA Medalist Naris McPherson grabbed silver in the 400M with a time of 56.70s, while Marissa Thomas was third in 1:01.83. The podium was the same in the 800M event.

The 100M event, premier sprint event in the girls’ di vision, was won by Karese Lloyd, who crossed the line in 12.46s. Athaley Hinckson and Tomischa Bowman com pleted the podium in that event.

On the male side of things, Ezekiel Newton con tinued to prove his worth as a sprinting sensation. Newton clocked 10.71s in the boys’ 100M and 21.93s in the 200M for first place in both events. Newton was trailed by Osa Blair, who clocked

10.94s and 22.13s for second place in both races.

Another standout per former, Javon Roberts, was tasked with holding off the challenge of newcom er Matrim Martin, who is known for his prowess on the football field. Martin’s challenges in the middle-dis tance races saw Roberts crossing the line in 2:00.97 for first in the 800M, while Martin was second in 2:02.96. the fin ish was the same in the 1500M event, where Roberts clocked 4:22.75, while Martin crossed the line in 4:25.05.

CARIFTA medalist Attoya Harvey also had a faultless outing on Sunday. She completed the 1500M event in 5:20.10 and the 3000M in 11:22.81, coming in first in both events.

The Inter-Guiana Games are scheduled to be held from November 25th to 27th, 2022 at venues across Guyana.

The Bounty Supermarket National Indoor Hockey Championships came to a close in entertain ing fashion last Sunday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH).

In the men’s second di vision semifinals, YMCA Old Fort Beta edged GCC Pitbulls 4-3 to earn their place in the finals, while SHC Snipers dominat ed their semifinal game against the previously out standing YMCA Old Fort Top Form with a 7-2 finish to also secure their spot in the finals. SHC Snipers con tinued to play clinically in their final match, and ham mered YMCA Old Fort Beta to record a 7-1 finish. The lone goal for Old Fort Beta was scored by Jael Gaskin, while Tahrea Garnett and Shakeem Fausette scored the majority of the goals for the Snipers.

Shakeem Fausette walked away with the MVP award in this category, while his teammate Raoul Whittaker earned the best goalkeeper award.

Meanwhile, in the Veterans category, Aderemi Simon of YMCA Old Fort showcased his dominance by scoring both goals for his team against Bounty GCC to earn the Vets title. The MVP award went to Devin Hooper, while the well-de served Best Goalkeeper Award went to Old Fort’s Anthony Cole.

where these GCC sister teams put on a good show for the fans. However, they were tied 2-2 at the buzz er. Sarah Klautky and Gabriella Xavier of GCC Tigers, who scored in the initial phase of the game, again scored in the penalty shootout to walk away with the trophy. Sonia Jardine netted the only goal for GCC Spice. The talented Abosaide Cadogan received the award for MVP, while her teammate Empress Charles was elected the best goalkeeper.

ed GCC The Sequel to ulti mately face Pepsi Hikers in the finals. After a feisty fi nal showdown, GCC carted off the Bounty Supermarket National Indoor Hockey Championship Trophy.

Crowd favourite Jamarj Assanah won the MVP Award, while Shane Cruikshank earned Best Goalkeeper Award.

Next on the Guyana Hockey Board’s (GHB) cal endar is an internation al tournament slated for December 1st-4th at the same venue.

In the ladies’ semifi nal matches, GCC Spice and GCC Tigers both elim inated their opponents to clash head-on in the finals,

The men’s semifinals saw Pepsi Hikers winning by a 2-goal difference (53) against YMCA Old Fort. Bounty GCC also eliminat

Winners’ Row at the GTT Guyana Open golf tourney

Male winner Avinash Persaud receiving his accolade from GTT’s Hilton Wong

Tiana Springer comfortably crossed the finish line in the 200M event

GCC Tigers are Women’s Champions

SHC Snipers are 2nd Division Winners

players shine at

Open golf tournament

With the clock counting down to the much antic ipated Ignite race meet of the Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club (GMR&SC), the JTECH X Automotive Art /Vibrant Performance Team has launched its ‘Road to November’ campaign.

Saturday’s launch, at the Lot 65 Croal Street premises of Automotive Art, coincided with the announcement that JTECH would become the local official dealers of the Fuel-Tech Electronic Control Unit (ECU).

Fuel-Tech is an international company that is specialised in de veloping and manufacturing stateof-the-art performance engine management systems. Always keeping a grip on the forefront of technology available, the com pany’s elite staff guarantees topnotch quality and constant inno vation.

The product line’s greatest ad vantage is its overall simplicity, from its painless installation to real time tuning in just hours, de pending on the application.

Their FT series ECU’s built-in interface is a complete set that al lows the user to have full control of the engine without the need of a PC, emphasising the on-the-spot, do-it-yourself concept.

The ‘Unruly’ Honda Civic of the Vibrant Performance was unveiled running a new Area51RaceCars/ FuelTech FT600 custom road race

complete package system ahead of the group three class of action, with Fuel-Tech representative Omar Crespo firing up the car for a brief show of the unit.

“The complete FT600 road race package system will allow us to control the engine, control the chassis wiring, and monitor data and log all sensors connect ed to the system. The custom en gine and chassis harness built by Area51RaceCars was designed in a way that both engine and chas sis harness were integrated into one clean unit. The benefits of this one-unit design are quick discon nect (in case of engine damage or having to swap harnesses to a dif ferent chassis). The ECU control of actuators and pumps (fans, so lenoids, fuel pumps, water pumps, etc) can connect as many sensors as possible while maintaining a clean and organized look,” it has been said.

JTECH X Automotive Art, through their local arm, has said, “We’re excited to continually add industry-leading brands to our product offering here at JTECH.

Having Fueltech and Omar Crespo come on board with us solidifies that claim, with Fuel-Tech being one of the most-sought-after per formance ECUs in today’s market. Our team is constantly working to develop the ‘Unruly’ Civic into a truly state-of-the-art machine built right here on home soil. We

hope to see sup port in the thou sands as we take on the rest of the Caribbean.”

With just un der two weeks remaining for the GMR&SC’s Ignite event to take place, ‘Unruly’ Civic driver Stefan Jeffrey looks forward to the event, es pecially given that the car made a clean sweep on its last circuit racing outing.

The team picked up three wins from three rac es on the last outing, and is looking to replicate the feat come November 12 and 13.

“With FuelTech com ing on board for this race meet, we have managed to improve the reliability of the ‘Unruly’ Civic. Not that it was unreli able, but you can nev er be too sure when it comes to racing, and with the com plete FT600 road race package, we would be able to pick up any issues we may have at an earlier time, as Omar explained earlier.

“We want to repeat the last outing with three wins, but at the same time, it’s a new track lay out, which is longer and much more demanding on both driver and car. Still, we are ready for the

GUYANA TIMES - www.guyanatimesgy.com, email: news@guyanatimesgy.com, NEWS HOTLINE: 231-8063

Snipers, GCC Tigers earn titles

challenge when we go testing this weekend.”

Saturday’s launch was done in collaboration with the GT Callout’s group; the team putting together a car show for likeminded enthusi asts and race fans.

While there, fans were giv en a brief tour of the JTECH and Automotive Art product line.

Those fans were also treated to giveaways from the JTECH team,

including shirts as well as GT Callouts memorabilia.

Vibrant Performance is an in dustry leader in fabrication mate rials, providing the best in intake, exhaust and fluid delivery compo nents for automotive, marine, ex otic, diesel and off-road applica tions.

The car’s other sponsors are Automotive Art, HAVIN’s Marine Custom Fabrication and Tropics.

EDITORIAL: 223-7230, 223-7231, 231-0544, 225-7761 SPORT: sport@guyanatimesgy.com SALES AND MARKETING: 231-8064 - marketing@guyanatimesgy.com - PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY GUYANA TIMES INC.

The JTECH team posing with their prize winners (GT Callouts Photo)

Stefan Jeffrey's Unruly Honda Civic will be running the new Area51RaceCars/FuelTech FT600 custom road race complete package