President Donald Ramotar was reportedly forced to cancel a campaign trip on behalf of the People’s Progressive Party to the Region 9 village of Moco Moco after the Village council denied approval for the visit because of short notice.

According to The Amerindian Act of 2006, Section 5, part II,  “A person, other than a person travelling for official business for the Government who wishes to enter Village lands shall apply for and obtain the permission of the village Council”.

Because the trip was a political campaign trip and not an official Presidential trip for government business, approval would have had to be granted for the visit in keeping with the Amerindian act.

When contacted, the Moco Moco village Toshao Mark George confirmed that the permission was indeed not granted for the President to visit the Amerindian village. He explained that the reason behind the refusal was because of “late notice”

According to Toshao George, he was contacted by a PPP campaign representative from Lethem on Monday requesting that the President visits the community the next day. The Toshao said that was just not enough time for the visit to take place. He said the request was done via phone and no official letter was dispatched to him or the village council.

When contacted on Wednesday, Presidential Spokesman and PPP activist Kwame McKoy said he had no information about the incident since he was out of the country and only returned on Wednesday morning.

Over the past two months, President Ramotar has been travelling to a number of Amerindian communities to campaign for the upcoming elections.

The Amerindian vote is seen as an important bloc and leaders from all political sides have been going into the various communities to unveil their plan for the development of the country’s indigenous people.

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Filed: 19th February, 2015

 

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