City Councillor Salima Bacchus-Hinds yesterday submitted her resignation from the Mayor and City Council, in order to take up a scholarship.
While Bacchus-Hinds, who holds the single seat won by Team Benschop for Mayor at the March 18 local government elections, has not publicly stated the reason for her resignation, Stabroek News understands that she is one of 22 persons selected to receive a Chevening Scholarship from the British Government.
Her resignation takes effect from September 1, 2016 and her replacement is to be named “soon.”
Team Benschop for Mayor won one seat through the Proportional Representative system of the local government elections.
When the results were revealed, leader of the party Mark Benschop had told Stabroek News that his team had made the decision to implement a rotation system. He said that the first and second persons will serve six months each and the others will serve the remaining two years for three months each.
September would mark the end of Bacchus-Hinds’ six months, according to the party’s rotation system. It is still unclear whether the rules governing the election will permit this.
“We have decided, and I have told my team, that the one seat doesn’t belong to me and doesn’t belong to any one individual but Team Benschop. It belongs to the group and every single one of us worked very hard for it and as a result that one seat is not going to be occupied for me for the entire three years or by any one for the entire period, in fact, I don’t even think anyone will occupy it for one year,” Benschop had told Stabroek News
