By Andre De Silva
(Intern with the Guyana Media and Communication Academy)
A thirty-year-old mining consultant/businessman will be contesting as an independent candidate against a 2018 APNU Councillor and a PPP/C candidate in the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) race for Constituency Seven in Georgetown at the June 12 local government elections.
Contesting in the Bourda-Stabroek Central-Lacytown First-Past-The-Post contest are Ivelaw Henry, the APNU representative; Charles Greaves, Independent Citizens for Progress representative; Bhisham Bipat for the governing PPP/C and Robert Bostwick, the independent candidate.
Stabroek News contacted Greaves for an interview but he said “Not at the moment”.
Bostwick told Stabroek News in an interview that he is, for all intents and purposes, a person who understands the difficulties that face his city.
The independent candidate said that his only accountability will be to the people he serves in his community through engagement and addressing infrastructure development, economic growth and job creation, environmental sustainability, public safety, education and youth programmes, fiscal prudency and vagrancy.
Robert Bostwick
This, he said, will encourage active participation from community members where there is an open line of communication to evaluate the existing infrastructure and identify areas that require improvement, such as transportation systems, road maintenance, public facilities, and utilities. It will also foster an environment conducive to local economic growth by improving businesses, supporting entrepreneurship, and creating job opportunities in the community and environmentally friendly practices and policies within the community through recycling and waste management programmes.
The candidate said that there will be collaboration with local law enforcement agencies and emergency services, to ensure the safety and well-being of residents. He is also advocating for the development and promoting of after-school programmes, vocational training, and extracurricular activities for children and teenagers through responsible financial management at council. This means seeking out opportunities for cost-saving measures and exploring alternative revenue sources to alleviate the tax burden on residents and businesses.
Bostwick said that local government should not be seen as a standalone, but as part and parcel of the development process, with means to forge a working relationship with central government to ensure the constituencies fit into the national development agenda and benefit equally. He also stated that he will work closely with the business community to raise funds and encourage community fundraisers; such as charity events, community fairs, sports tournaments, sponsorships and grant programmes for sustainable projects.
A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) Ivelaw Henry, who was elected as a councillor in the 2018 First-Past-The-Post contest, advocated for the painting of bridges and cleaning of alleyways on South Road and North Road, with an upgrading of the Merriman Mall area where the barbers and hairdressers are located and road works on Alexander and Charlotte streets. He said as councillor, he had the task of serving on several committees of Council, including the finance, solid waste and human resources committee.
Henry shared that as a councillor in 2018, he had major issues with vagrancy and street dwellers which contributed to the inability to maintain a tidy environment. He also said that builder’s waste caused alleyways and roads to quickly flood.
In his new campaign, he will continue to address previous issues that are still a burden.
“… Bourda needs to be cleaner. Our environment must be cleaner and everything humanly possible must be done to improve the situation. Agitate for studies to be done to rid the city of social rejects… I suspect it is fallout from socio-economic issues in our society and in our oil rich country, resources even outside of City Hall must be called upon. Council needs more central government funding to tackle the drainage problem”, he stated.
Ivelaw Henry
The 2018 APNU councillor told Stabroek News, that Bourda-Stabroek-Lacytown, is the city’s central constituency, with a need for improved parking space. He said that he will agitate for engineers to be more efficient and effective in areas needed to curb the flooding, make further improvements to the Merriman Mall and to have zero tolerance for all unnecessary noise, waste and littering in the area.
“The businesses on North Road and South Road are encouraged to contribute to improve their road shoulders as they have been doing by revetment of the canals in front of their businesses. We do have families and people who can do with relaxation space and our constabulary must be empowered. We have a number of policy papers on issues like construction, solid waste, illicit vending, etc. We need to ensure our people adhere to that, but they don’t …”, he expressed.
The retired Chief Statistical Officer, believes that the PPP/C has not been forthcoming with funds to the APNU-led Council. He said in terms of the plans, independent feasibility studies need to be conducted followed by an approach to funding agencies to implement some of the ideas in communities such as Bourda.
“I have seen this as a bugbear at council. Council secures on its own behalf over two billion dollars, 60% pays wages and salaries. Little is left for capital expenditure. The public should know that as a mandate of these elections council can go to funding agencies for independent funding. Our laws provide for that. If the Government is opposed to that then the public should know and take public actions”, he mentioned.
The seventy-year-old UG Economics graduate said that if he is reelected come June 12, it will be a pleasure to serve the people. He said that his belief in this has been strengthened by exposure and needs seen in the society since he joined the council. He is convinced that he has and can cause an impact with his skills and experience.
Bhisham Bipat
Bhisham Bipat, the candidate representing the governing PPP/C, said that the reason he joined the local government elections, is to make his community a better and safer place. He said that he will bring accountability and transparency to City Hall and the citizens and stakeholders (business owners in the constituency) will have a better and secure environment.
“For years now, no audit was done for City Hall and they always refused audits. When I am elected as councillor, I will get other councillors within the system to help me show the public the accounts and let the taxpayers know how the money is being spent on the city, for the good of our citizens and stakeholder to ensure that our city is a beautiful city. This will encourage taxpayers to pay their taxes”, he shared.
The PPP/C candidate stated that there is a major disaster in the city every time it starts to rain; the city floods in minutes and there is need to desilt the drains that are blocked up by garbage and vegetation for a better and secured environment. He also said that the security in the city is the responsibility of the city police but they don’t patrol and that the system needs to be reorganized to prevent crimes. “The petty crime within the town can stop and make the citizens and stakeholders feel more secure and alongside that, we need more maintenance on our roads, drainage, street lights, an upgrade in the market facilities and garbage collection consistency”, Bipat elaborated.
When asked about funding, Bipat said that the taxes paid by taxpayers will be used to help in most of the plans towards development and once transparency and accountability prevail within City Hall, the citizens will also pay their taxes up to date and that he would encourage the government to help financially.
The twenty-nine-year-old businessman who is also a mechanic and electrician, decided to run for the seat under the banner of the PPP/C, to make the city a better place. This decision, he said, was made after a careful consideration of the issues within the city that was run for approximately 57 years by a one group of politicians. He said the city is in a poor state and getting worse.
