ONE of the things that I learnt from my grandmother is that people often judge you based on their standards. This came to my mind when the saga broke about the misuse of the funds released to the PNCR for payment to the party scrutineers.

Have Corbin and other leading members of the PNCR ever found any evidence accusing the Government of misusing public funds and pauperizing public servants? This, I was told, is one of the reasons given for the present protest.

I was therefore more surprised when I was told that monies are being deducted from the scrutineers money to finance the PNCR party activities, and that persons who were PNCR scrutineers were told to attend the protest march or they would not be paid.

Corbin recently said that President Jagdeo was threatening to withdraw the funding to the PNCR scrutineers until the party could account for the funds already released. Corbin claims that a move like this would jeopardize the integrity of the electoral list, since the PNCR would not be able to provide scrutineers without the funding.

This has placed the President in a ‘chicken and egg’ situation while showing the true colours of Corbin and the PNCR.

It is interesting to see what the outcome of this new development will be, since if the President chooses to stop funding to the PNCR scrutineers, Corbin will claim to have a legitimate reason to cry foul at the next election. If President Jagdeo chooses to continue funding the Corbin’s charade, he will find some ‘red herring’ other reason to cry foul.
STEPHEN BERNARD