Two months after taking office, the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown remains one member short of its full complement of 30 councillors as a seat won by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) remains empty.
Patrick DeSantos, who was identified by leader of the PPP/C list Mohamed Khan to occupy one of the four Proportional Representation (PR) seats won by the party, following the November 12th local government elections, never took up his seat.
On November 30th, when the 29 other councillors were sworn in, DeSantos was absent due to illness and acting Town Clerk Sharon Harry-Munroe announced that he would be sworn in at a later date.
However, DeSantos instead resigned and the vacancy was duly announced and communicated to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
PPP/C Councillor Bhishram Kuppen explained to Stabroek News that the party has been contacted by GECOM and its Central Committee is “discussing a replacement.”
“There is no name for a replacement yet but I know the Central Committee dealt with the issue [yesterday],” Kuppen noted.
The PPP/C, which was only able to secure two PR seats in the 2016 elections, was in 2018 able to increase its number of seats at the Horseshoe table to seven. DeSantos, Kuppen, Coleen Sampson and Dion Younge were identified to occupy the PR seats, while Nalissa Ferguson, Dimitri Ali, and Param Persaud each secured constituency seats.
