Poor turn-out at PNC/R protest yesterday an indication of their slide towards irrelavance!

There was poor public response to the protest march the main opposition People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) mounted in Georgetown yesterday and at least one main store shut its doors as the group moved along Main Street.

The closure of the store was in response to fears triggered by the looting and attacks that accompanied similar protest marches the party organised in the city several years ago, but police kept a close watch on the marchers.

The throng led by PNCR and Opposition Leader Robert Corbin and several senior party officials was estimated at some 100 at its highest point.

The protest march was intended to draw public support for claims by the PNCR and other groups that testimony by a witness in a court case in New York related to confessed drug trafficker Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan has implicated Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy and the Guyana Government.

Mr. Corbin and others struggled to mobilise the handful of supporters assembled at Joseph Pollydore Street in Lodge for the march which got going way past its 09:30 h start.

There were last minute attempts to galvanise supporters but these proved futile as people refused to join the PNCR march.

The number of marchers remained static throughout the route which went south and then north into the city.

PNCR Executives in the march, Volda Lawrence and Basil Williams, tried but failed to swell the numbers even in traditional party stronghold areas such as Lodge, Charlestown and Albouystown.

One woman said, ‘I don’t have time for nonsense. Me ain’t flogging no dead horse.’

The march ended at Parade Ground where Corbin addressed the gathering which remained at about the same as the group that participated in the march.