“Ignore distractors; we are here to build a stronger community” – Pres. Ali tells Buxton

President Dr Irfaan Ali earlier today engaged residents in several communities along the East Coast of Demerara, where he addressed a number of issues raised.

Among the villages visited was Buxton – a traditional support base of the People’s National Congress (PNC)-led Opposition.

However, while the Head of State addressed residents on the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government’s commitment to enhancing their lives, there was heckling.

This resulted in verbal exchanges between the residents gathered, prompting the president to intervene and asking the gathering to “just ignore” the heckler, and focus on the efforts by his administration to build a stronger community and improve the lives of residents of Buxton.

“Listen, in every society there [are] distractors… Just leave the distractor alone. We are here, focusing on your development. We are here to focus on your community. We are here to focus on how we could further build your community – that is what we have to focus on.”

“One distractor cannot distract the will of the collective of all of us. Never allow one distractor to destroy the collective will of the people. We have a collective will and that collective will is to build a stronger community. Anyone who’s against that, sorry [but] they are not part of the aggressive agenda of building a stronger Guyana together,” the Guyanese Leader stated to applause and cheers from the gathering.

While Buxton has been a PNC stronghold for decades, the PPP/C has been making inroads and broadening its support base in the East Coast Demerara community in recent years.

In fact, at the 2018 Local Government Elections (LGE), the PNC-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Opposition lost control of the Buxton/Foulis Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) to the PPP/C.