The PPP/C put the blame on the main Opposition People's National Congress Reform (PNC/R) for yesterday's violent attacks in downtown Georgetown, which saw several incidents of banditry, the setting ablaze of two Regent Street stores, and the attack on the Presidential Complex, in which the officer in charge of the Presidential Guards there was wounded.

"PNC activist Phillip Bynoe led the invading gang who recently launched a racist attack on the current administration and squatted in front of the Prime Minister's residence. It must be noted that the PNC/R leaders Robert Corbin and Vincent Alexander had also been mobilising for (yesterday's) illegal activities", the PPP/C stated.

"The unrest in Georgetown resulting from the PNC/R organised illegal march and protest on the East Coast of Demerara and Georgetown is consistent with a pattern of destabilisation acts unleashed by that party following its defeat at successive elections since October 1992, when democracy was returned to the country after an absence of 28 years", the PPP/C said in a statement.

It stated that the PNC/R has consistently claimed that the elections were rigged despite the fact that all were declared free and fair by local, regional and international observer groups, and charged that the PNC/R is unprepared to accept the verdict of the Guyanese people.

"Its (the PNC's) 28 years of dictatorial rule is still fresh in the minds of Guyanese. And now that party seeks to subvert democracy from the Opposition", the PPP/C stated.