Region 10-Upper Demerara/Berbice continues to be the only Administrative Region without a Regional Chairman and Vice Chair as the Regional Executive Officer, Dwight John, continues to refuse to call another meeting of the Councilors to elect a Chairman and Vice Chairman.

The first and only meeting for Chairman was held more than 3 months ago, and ended in a tie between the APNU Candidate and the WIN Candidate.

Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Priya Manickchand is maintaining that she cannot intervene in the electoral impasse, but the APNU has said the failure to reconvene the meeting for the election is another ploy by the Government to undermine local democracy.

At a press conference this week, Minister Manickchand repeated that the laws governing the Regional elections at the level of the council were amended to remove the role of the Minister in breaking any tie, and she intends to abide by the laws.

“To involve myself is to attract a claim of bias one way or the other. You know there are all kinds of court decisions that I am aware of that speak to actual bias but also perceived bias in decisions that are taken. I am a political appointee, the legislation specifically sought to remove the minister’s purview interference in this process and I wouldn’t want to breach that at all,” Minister Manickchand said.

Region 10 Clerk of Council, Dwight John, who presided over the election, at the time, indicated that the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development would have to use her casting vote to elect the Regional Chairman. However, though the Local Government Minister has since excluded herself from the process, on the basis of law, John has made no attempt to reconvene the meeting for another round of voting.

Asked whether she was concerned that the Clerk of Council had not reconvened the meeting for the election, Minister Manickchand again maintained that she cannot intervene. 

“I prefer to stay away from any kind of interference because the legislation has asked me directly or my office to stay away from any kind of interference in that process,” she said.

APNU Representative Sherwin Benjamin said the failure by the Clerk of Council to reconvene the meeting is another ploy by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) to undermine local democracy.

“The respected parties in Region 10 have been in contact with Mr Dwight John. The constitutional requirement is for him to have that meeting reconvene, and again, these matters rest solely with the directions from somewhere else, and it appears as if the government seems to be willing to have these kinds of situations exist because they benefit from these kinds of chaotic situation,” Benjamin told reporters at a recent press conference.

He said the APNU will continue to push for the elections to be held.

Days after the election ended in gridlock, WIN threatened to initiate legal action in the High Court if the Region 10 Clerk of Council did not convene a meeting within 48 hours to elect the Chairman and Vice Chairman.

 Though that ultimatum has long expired, there has been no movement on the election, leaving the Region without a Chairman and Vice Chairman.

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