Georgetown, Guyana – (June 28, 2017) The Ministry of the Presidency questions the veracity of the Guyana Times article headlined, ‘Diplomats express fears over Granger’s ulterior election motive’ and calls on the outlet to either provide the evidence of the claims made therein, or retract it immediately. Further, the Ministry of the Presidency calls on the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo, who is quoted as making these spurious claims in the article, without providing any actual evidence or proof, to be more responsible and honest in his public statements.

In the article published on Wednesday June 28, 2017, the Opposition Leader is quoted as saying; “I had discussions with people from the diplomatic community… He (Granger) is raising a lot of concerns internationally about the elections.” The article, which is void of any evidence that any ‘real’ diplomat expressed such fears to Mr. Jagdeo, is a clear attempt to use a serious constitutional matter, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairmanship, for malicious political theatre.

The Ministry calls on all media outlets to seriously investigate the wild claims made by the Opposition Leader, who told members of the media, “we have started doing work internationally to ensure that the election is free and fair… people see this in the international community as a strategy”, on the part of the Granger Government.

The Ministry of the Presidency calls on the Opposition Leader to state which ‘diplomats’ expressed ‘fears’, when and to whom. If there is no evidence that diplomats expressed such ‘fears’ then the newspaper, if it is interested in operating as a credible and responsible source of news, which meets international journalistic standards, should retract the article.

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