A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) will unveil its candidates for Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Municipality of Georgetown on Thursday.
On Thursday, the new council is expected to meet for the first time since the June 12th Local Government Elections (LGE) where APNU won 19 out of the 30 seats available on the council and the governing People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) 11 seats.
But Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton added to the intrigue yesterday when asked about his party’s likely candidates. Norton chose to remain tightlipped and ventured that he won’t be naming names.
“I wouldn’t comment on who is going to be Mayor,” Norton responded when asked. Norton said it’s likely that both posts will be filled by APNU Councillors. “We won Georgetown and we will put up candidates for the Mayor and Deputy Mayor seats but a decision will be reached when they meet on Thursday, the Councillors will vote.”
One supporter of APNU, Norman Browne, however did not shy away from naming a name, and identified South Georgetown’s APNU candidate, Kibwe Copeland, as a possible frontrunner for seat of Mayor of Georgetown. According to Browne, a youthful Mayor-elect Copeland can be the change in the culture of the party and how it functions.
“We cannot bring down the dictatorship if opposition politicians continue the same culture that kept us out of power for twenty-three years. Some of us did not have the voice, platform and prominence back then to make a significant indentation with regard to pronouncing on the things that matter in opposition politics. That has changed now. Leaders were allowed to make any old decisions that suited their ego and their convenience. I am stating that culture must end under the people’s watch. The power to decide belongs to our supporters and constituents. Whatever decisions we make in the placement of local leaders must inevitably benefit the struggle to see regime change”, he said in a letter to Stabroek News.
Browne said he received many calls about Copeland being the next Mayor due to his commitment to change. “I cannot exaggerate the amount of calls and messages I received from our supporters in Georgetown and the US asking to advocate strongly for Kibwe Copeland to become the next Mayor of Georgetown. The people seem to have their minds set on that hardworking, dedicated and passionate young politician that the PPP is very afraid of and wants nothing to do with.” He added that Copeland is one of our emerging leaders who will be uncompromising with the dictatorship. His passion is service to the people. “He is one of our young ‘Turks’ who will deliver and he is impenetrable and cannot be compromised or bought,” Browne said.
Over the past years, the Municipality, managed by the Opposition, faced many criticisms relating to its leadership and then its management of the city. Criticisms spanned from questions of finance, to sanitation, the collection of taxes and other issues. Those issues were raised mostly by the PPP/C Government, whose aim this year was to win the City. That aim did not materialise as residents of Georgetown found favour with the Opposition to continue to manage the council.
Copeland contested in Constituency 14, South Ruimveldt Park/Ruimveldt industrial Estate and handily defeated his PPP/C opponent.
He rattled up 1,595 votes compared to 401 for the PPP/C’s Coleen Alicia Sampson.
Moving forward, outgoing Mayor Ubraj Narine, who served as Mayor twice, pointed out the need for continuity of the works of the council from where he left off. “I just hope that the council continues with transparency and accountability, at all levels of the business of the council or committees, and everything should be scrutinized and passed properly.” Despite years of turmoil between the APNU-led mayoralty and the PPP/C councillors, Narine, advised that a member of the PPP/C Party should sit on the Finance committee.
“I urged that a member from the PPP side should be placed on the finance committee, like I did as mayor for the past five years. I placed a member of the PPP side on the finance committee, city works committee, on the investment and development committee as well. I placed members from the opposite side of the council on those committees because of transparency and accountability”, he said.
While the outgoing mayor maintains that the council can work through shared governance, he urged the new council to not fall into the trap of making business deals as opposed to looking out for the people.
“In that case, I extended my hands to the Government but I never heeded the Government calls, I never bowed myself to central Government calls because I believed the council is semi-autonomous and we have to represent the people’s interest [in the city]. I’m not there to make business deals or create business deals and I’m not there to sideline the residents of Georgetown. I’m there to represent them at all cost”, he said. Narine is however of the view that the government will not want to work with the new council and it’s up to them [the council] to work around that situation. The Georgetown Municipality is the largest Local Authority Area. Only 28.1% of its voters turned out to cast ballots.
