New Amsterdam Mayor Winifred Haywood last night blasted the ruling PPP/C for neglecting the town for a long time.
With the PPP/C making a concerted effort to seize control of the town at tomorrow’s Local Government Elections (LGE), Haywood – representing APNU – ripped into the PPP/C for only now attempting some projects for electoral gain.
While Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton had been billed to appear yesterday at A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) last meeting in the town, he was a no show up to press time.
However, present was the Vice Chairman of the PNCR, Vinceroy Jordan. He urged the gathering to vote for the APNU candidates as he stressed that it was former President David Arthur Granger who returned local democracy through Local Government Elections (LGE) to Guyana. Jordan said the people that have gone over to the PPP/C will soon return to APNU after the upcoming LGE. Without calling names, Jordan said there is a particular woman in the region who after learning about a particular report decided to take shelter under the PPP/C.
He said, “The PPP/C’s days are numbered in government” as he declared that APNU will return to government at the next General Election.
He added that Monday should be a “stepping stone” for the next general elections.
According to Jordan, since he was young he knows that New Amsterdam “belongs” to the PNCR. “So nobody na gone come and tell me about selling our votes.”
Touching on the awarding of contracts recently for roads within the region, Jordan said he understand that a former member of the PNCR received contracts but that the switchers are only receiving small contracts.
He urged the sizeable gathering not to give the PPP/C a chance in New Amsterdam. “Where these people been all the time?”, he questioned adding that “old people say if something na bruck na fix am and so we don’t have to fix anything comrades.”
Haywood told the meeting that she has spent 29 years at the level of the council being a councilor, deputy mayor and mayor but that New Amsterdam was always treated as a “step child.”
However, she said that the town is now receiving gold, diamonds and minerals.
She declared, “They not getting this town… They have told us a lot of lies, we don’t want to hear them anymore. We doing what we have to do because this is our town. “
“We have been under suffering”, she said.
According to her, every part of Corriverton received new roads but that “they are now coming to New Amsterdam” to do only a few roads before the Local Government Elections.
Haywood then accused “many business owners” within the town of not paying taxes, taking up the paves and throwing garbage in the interlocks.
Transformation
Meanwhile, Kim Stephens, former Regional Executive Officer of Region Six, who is contesting in New Amsterdam Constituency 6 for APNU told the gathering that she is confident that she will win her constituency. She said a vote for her would be a vote for transformation, restoration and “New Amsterdam achieving its full potential.”
According to her, there are a lot of “issues and challenges” within their constituency with roads riddles with potholes, garbage piled up and streets dirty.
Pointing out that there are financial difficulties and an issue of unemployment within her constituency, she said “The time is now for us to empower each other.”
If elected to be the “leader” of Constituency 6, Williams said she will work on solutions for the issues she discovered in her walkabout.
She told the gathering that the people have the power to vote for the party of their choice.
Additionally, she said that some of the things she wants to focus on include night classes for youths who were unable to finish secondary school among other programmes.
Meanwhile, Kirk Fraser, another New Amsterdam candidate said that the PPP/C sent two notices to New Amsterdam “taking away” lands at Esplanade.
According to Fraser, who is a town councillor for APNU, property owners within Vryman’s Erven should be worried as their lands were surveyed recently.
“We have a duty to protect and defend the sacrifices” of their grandparents and foreparents.
He said, the lands at Palmyra, Corentyne which were supposed to return to cultivation under the sugar industry were given to the friends of the PPP/C.
“The David Granger-led administration through the Regional Democratic Council would have pumped tremendous resources into the town of New Amsterdam”, he told the gathering which increased gradually throughout the evening.
Meanwhile, Fraser also called on residents to be more active within the township, touching on the importance of the concept of “self help.”
Fraser said when the new council is elected they will work to attract investors “to fulfill many of the needs that you so desire in the town of New Amsterdam” asking the gathering to support those initiatives when they come on board.
