Internal elections at municipalities…Corriverton Mayor nearly voted out; tie saves him

Dec 02, 2016 News

The Corriverton Mayor and Town Council on November 24, 2016 held its annual election to

An upset?- Mayor Ganesh Gangadin

determine who will be the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Corriverton come 2017. The Town Council comprises a total of 14 councillors with 12 being opposition (PPP/C) and two from the Government side.
However, the persons contesting to take up the seat as the mayor of the town, Ganesh Gangadin, presiding Mayor and Krishnand Jaichand, Deputy Mayor, are both from the opposition, PPP/C.
The proceedings on November 24 saw smooth sailing and resulted in a tie with Gangadin copping the votes of seven councillors and Hemchand the same. It was after the elections that the councillors realized that one councillor may have been swayed to vote for present Mayor Ganesh Gangadin, which resulted in the unexpected tie.
According to information, Denis DeRoop, Vice Chairman of Region Six and also head of the People’s Progressive Party Civic in Region Six was seen chatting with a councillor who is well known as one of Jaichand’s biggest supporter.
Everett Harewood, one of the councillors present at the election who spoke with Kaieteur News via telephone, said that if were not for the intervention of the Regional Vice Chairman another election would not have been necessary to break a tie, since according to him there would not have been a tie.
Harewood pointed out Jaichand was expected to win the elections. However, after DeRoop

Deputy Mayor, Krishnand Jaichand

coerced one of the female councillors, the woman voted for Gangadin. “The Regional Vice Chairman was trying to persuade one person to move over to Gangadin’s side.
Another councillor said, “This is not a party thing; this is a community thing.”He strongly insisted that Guyana is a democratic country. “DeRoop cannot come and tell people who to vote for,” the annoyed councillor said.
Meanwhile, another meeting is expected to be held on Friday at 10:00 am in an effort to break the tie and have a new Mayor and Deputy Mayor elect.
However, sources have revealed that the Vice Chairman is likely to attend the meeting once more in order to ensure that the results favour his party’s choice of Mayor.
Voting will once again take place today to see whether there is a clear declaration of a mayor and a deputy.