Over 100 Amerindian communities will be holding meetings for Toshaos and Village Councillors shortly, Minister of Indigenous People’s Affairs, Sydney Allicock says.
He told GINA that the Ministry is in preparation mode and that the process is expected to be conducted by July 22.
The elections had originally been scheduled for April but had to be postponed because of general elections.
Allicock said that the Ministry is currently in collaboration with the Ministry of Communities to dispatch letters to the various communities advising of the meetings.
After the holding of the village elections, the Minister said the next focus will be the National Toshaos’ Council, so that the Ministry could get on with its work.
He said that the administration’s intention is to depoliticise the Toshaos’ Council, allowing Amerindian leaders to discuss the way forward without any sort of alliance.
“We would like to have Toshaos using their imagination, their own strength, because they are the ones who have to manage their communities, and if they are linked heavily to political parties, then they would be probably intimidated and they wouldn’t be able to do their work as they should be for the communities,” Allicock told GINA.
