The governing APNU+AFC on Friday took all seven of the seats on the city’s key Finance Committee despite the nomination of a Team Legacy member who was backed by other groups elected to the council.
Observers say domination of the committee will raise questions about the coalition’s national position about sharing power at various levels. APNU+AFC has 25 seats on the Mayor and City Council while the other groups control five.
APNU+AFC has also taken all of the seats on the Finance Committees for the New Amsterdam, Bartica and Linden municipal councils.
Election of the Finance Committee members for the city came immediately after Patricia Chase-Green and Sherod Duncan –both of APNU+AFC – had been elected Mayor and Deputy Mayor respectively.
When the floor was open for election of the Finance Committee members, in rapid fire succession, APNU+AFC councillors stood up and nominated and seconded five councillors.
The process appeared to show that the APNU+AFC councillors had come with lists of those who would be nominated as one of them erred and nominated Roopnarine Persaud who had not yet been sworn in as a councillor as he had arrived late.
This led to a hiatus in proceedings when it was pointed out by Chase-Green that Persaud had not yet been sworn in.
It was at this point that Team Benschop for Mayor Councillor Salima Bacchus-Hinds rose and nominated Carolyn Caesar-Murray of Team Legacy to be a member of the Finance Committee. Thereafter, APNU+AFC councillors nominated two more of their fellow councillors meaning that there were eight nominees for the seven positions.
In the voting that followed, the APNU+AFC councillors voted for their nominees while Team Benschop for Mayor, Team Legacy and the two PPP/C councillors voted for Caesar-Murray to no avail and the seven APNU+AFC councillors were then declared duly elected to the Finance Committee.
Oscar Clarke, who is the General Secretary of the PNCR and served on the previous council was elected as chair of the committee.
The other six members are Junior Garrett, who also served on the previous city council; Alfred Mentore, Sophia Whyte, Ivelaw Henry, Yvonne Ferguson and Linda Gomes-Haley.
Leader of Team Benschop for Mayor, Mark Benschop who was present at the elections expressed disappointment at the results.
“We expected better. The voting behaviour is suspect and makes the committee a rubber stamp,” he told Stabroek News.
Michael Leonard of Team Legacy, who was also observing the process, said he had expected some sort of inclusion for the other parties on the council.
“One of our councillors was nominated but there was such an overwhelming vote against her that it was almost like they came with instructions,” Leonard said.
In their quest to see Caesar-Murray elected, Team Legacy’s Malcolm Ferreira and Bacchus-Hinds voted against the APNU+AFC nominees while the PPP/C abstained.
Ferreira later clarified that he had nothing against the other nominees but voted against them as part of a strategy to give Caesar-Murray a chance at a seat on the council.
The members of the New Amsterdam Finance Committee are Buster Wright, Winifred Heywood, Patricia Lynch, Polliann Shultz, William Moore, Leroy Grant and Eusi Smith
Meanwhile, in the PPP/C-controlled councils of Corriverton and Rose Hall, at least one member of the Finance Committee is from the less represented party or group.
In Rose Hall the Finance Committee members are Vijay Ramoo (chair), Kamla Marriemootoo, Danraj Samaroo, Elvis Punch and Rukmin Ramcharran. Ramcharran is a councillor for APNU+AFC.
The Corriverton Finance Committee members are Krishnanad Jaichand, Latchmee Edwards, Sheik Mahmood, Pradeep Ketwaroo and Jamna Ghamandi of the PPP.
The other member is Evertt Harewood who is one of the two representatives of the New Dawn Development Association.
