On Thursday, August 6, 2026, Guyanese President Irfaan Ali publicly rejected growing opposition and activist demands for the resignation of Maritime Transport Minister Juan Edghill, just weeks after the deadly July 19 sinking of the MV Barima ferry that left dozens missing off the country’s Essequibo Coast. The president made his position clear while exiting a model village initiative community consultation held at Melanie Nursery School in Melanie Damishana, along Guyana’s East Coast Demerara, where a heavy police presence was deployed to separate a small group of anti-government protesters from the event venue.
The MV Barima tragedy, widely described as the deadliest maritime disaster in recent Caribbean history, occurred when the overloaded ferry sank en route from Georgetown to Port Kaituma in the hard-hit Region One (Barima-Waini). Official tallies confirm 76 people were rescued, 72 passengers and crew are confirmed dead, and 30 remain unaccounted for, with 179 total people recorded as being on board when the vessel capsized in Atlantic waters. Authorities have launched a salvage operation prioritizing the preservation of forensic evidence for an independent Commission of Inquiry (COI) that President Ali has pledged to let operate without political interference.
When questioned by Demerara Waves Online News on calls to place Edghill on administrative leave or force his resignation ahead of the inquiry’s findings, Ali maintained he would not pre-empt the COI’s work. “There is a COI and I have established its independence and let the COI work, ok,” the president stated. Notably, Edghill remained in his post as of Wednesday this week, and even accompanied Ali on a ministerial outreach trip to Region One just over a month after the sinking.
Local law enforcement blocked off access roads surrounding the nursery school to contain the protest, which drew only a small crowd of demonstrators on the village’s main access road. President Ali entered the venue via an alternate route to avoid the gathering. Prior to the start of the consultation, Walston Martins, Chairman of the Buxton-Foulis Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), and an unidentified woman were escorted from the area opposite the school to beyond police cordons. After the removal, the woman was arrested and transported from the scene in a police vehicle. A senior police official also suggested that a journalist could face arrest for allegedly violating restrictions on access to the active police operation.
As he was escorted out, Martins denounced the action as unconstitutional and announced plans to challenge the government and law enforcement in court. He argued that as the local NDC chair, he had a legal right to be present for the community meeting held within his jurisdiction. “I’m the chairman of this NDC. This is my jurisdiction… I will carry the whole pack to court and let us see who will win,” Martins said. From behind the police barrier later, Martins criticized the national series of model village consultations, framing the public outreach as a deliberate distraction from public grief and unanswered questions surrounding the ferry disaster. “This government is a deflective government or a deflection government because we have a boat that is under the sea, we have people that are still hurting and you want to come and talk about a model village,” he said, adding that the government should have consulted the local NDC directly rather than holding standalone community events.
A senior on-scene police official pushed back against Martins’ claims, alleging that law enforcement overheard Martins stating he had not come to the area to attend the consultation. Martins has previously participated in small protests against the criminal charges brought against MV Barima Captain Kevin “KP” Price and two other Transport and Harbours Department workers, who are currently facing murder charges in connection with the deaths of the 72 victims.
Shortly after Martins’ removal, several parliamentarians from the main opposition bloc A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) arrived at the scene to lead protests. The demonstrators chanted calls for both Edghill and Deodat Indar, the country’s maritime regulation minister, to step down, with additional chants demanding the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) government leave office. Law enforcement deployed a standard prisoner transport van to the site to manage arrests and crowd control as the demonstration unfolded.