The ruling APNU+AFC coalition won 25 of the 30 seats that make up the Georgetown City Council in the local government elections contested on Friday, which saw less than 40% of registered voters casting their ballots countrywide.
Of these 25 seats, 11 were won through Proportional Representation and 14 were won by the coalition’s First-Past-The-Post candidates. In fact, the coalition won the First-Past-The-Post seat in every constituency it contested.
Speaking on behalf of the successful coalition, Sherod Duncan, who won the heavily contested Constituency 14 (South Ruimveldt Park/ Ruimveldt Industrial Site) First-Past-The-Post seat, said APNU+AFC believed that the people spoke.
“We would’ve liked them to speak a little louder,” he, however, said, referring to the low turnout.
Duncan took the time to congratulate his competitors, including Mark Benschop of Team Benschop for Mayor, Saiku Andrews, of Team Legacy, and Clayon Halley, of Youth for Local Government.
“They all did well and were worthy competitors,” he said.
According to Duncan, the coalition’s large margin of victory was a direct result of the groundwork done by the candidates.
In Constituency 10 (Albouystown-Charlestown), where the coalition did not contest, the First-Past-The-Post seat was won by Team Legacy’s Malcolm Ferreira.
Team Legacy was also able to win one of the Proportional Representation seats.
Speaking on behalf of the group, Andrews, who contested in Constituency 14, said, “We would like to thank Gecom for their professionalism throughout the elections and the prompt delivery of results.”
According to Andrews, the team has decided that campaign manager Carolyn Caesar-Murray will be taking up the seat on the council.
“She will be bringing to the council the values which lie at the core of Team Legacy as well as the plans and initiatives the team shared…,” he said.
Also winning a Proportional Representation seat is Team Benschop for Mayor. The team’s campaign manager Ronson Grey told Stabroek News yesterday that Team Benschop was disappointed with the results.
“We expected more, but the people had something else in mind and we have to accept what we have been awarded by the people and work with it,” he said
Asked to identify the person who will take up the seat, Grey said it was still being discussed.
“Obviously our first option is for Mark to occupy the seat, because we still feel he would achieve much on the council but we have to have that discussion in the group and pronounce on it tomorrow [today],” he said.
The other two Proportional Representation seats were won by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic.
Low turnout
Meanwhile, Guyana’s first local government elections in more than 20 years saw between 38% and 39% of registered voters casting ballots across the country, according to Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield. In the capital city, 41,924 of the 112,364 registered electors, some 37.3%, voted.
This is more than the 33.37% who turned up to cast their ballots in 1994, according to the International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES) report. It is, however, less than the 55.6% of registered disciplined service members who turned up to vote on March 8.
At a press conference held by Gecom yesterday, Chairman of the commission Dr Steve Surujbally said the low turnout could not be blamed on Gecom.
According to Surujbally no one at Gecom contested the election and though the commission chose to engage in civic and voter education, it was not strictly part of its mandate as an elections management body.
“No! Gecom will not take any blame,” Surujbally said, though PPP/C-nominated Commissioner Bibi Shadick expressed the view that Gecom’s voter and civic education started too late.
“We wanted it to begin much earlier and for a longer period… This last blitz was just too much and some of the ads were too verbose only those who were very interested or like to read would’ve read them,” Shadick said.
Sujubally stressed that where the commission was ailing, it will be corrected, but added, “You can take a horse to the water; you can’t make it drink.”
The projected winners of the 15 First-Past-the-Post seats at last Friday’s Georgetown elections
