Latest update March 13th, 2026 12:35 AM
WIN MP slams Govt. over Region 10 RDC delay
…warns of exclusion from development
(Kaieteur News) – Member of Parliament for the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party, Duarte Hetsberger, has accused the Government of a constitutional failure over its continued delay in convening the statutory meeting of the Region 10 Regional Democratic Council (RDC), five months after elections were held.
Speaking during the Budget Debate last Thursday, Hetsberger told the National Assembly that the Upper Demerara–Upper Berbice RDC has still not met to elect its Chairperson and Vice Chairperson, despite a national budget already being laid and regional programmes moving ahead. “They haven’t reconvened that statutory meeting to conclude the election for its Chairperson and Vice Chairperson, Mr. Speaker and a budget is before this honourable House, Mr. Speaker, prepared. Expenditure has been outlined, the programmes are moving forward, yet the duly elected council, the body constitutionally mandated to guide, scrutinise and implement regional development has been excluded from the process. Mr. Speaker, this is not a technical delay. It is not an administrative oversight. It is a constitutional failure. Utter failure,” he lamented.
Member of Parliament for the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party Duarte Hetsberger.
MP Hetsberger told the House that the region is not just important to him but it is also important to his party, and its movement at large.
Turning his attention to the Upper Takatu, Upper Essequibo Region also known as Region Nine, Guyana’s largest administrative region, he highlighted that the Rupununi located here is of vast distance and rich in Indigenous heritage, with immense agricultural potential.
The politician reasoned that the region has significant opportunity for tourism and cross-border trade and is home to more than 55 villages that cover approximately 57,700 square kilometers. “This reality alone, Mr. Speaker speaks not only to the geographical scale of the region but the depth of responsibility borne by the state in delivering services, infrastructure and governance across that vast distance. Mr. Speaker, this is not a sparsely inhabited space that can be managed by approximation and occasional intervention,” Hestberger stressed.
He went on to say that developmental efforts need to be organised to suit the region of communities that have distinct needs, priorities and expectations. Therefore, it cannot be treated as episodic or occasional intervention which is often channeled through the lens of a camera for the purpose of social media platform.
“Mr. Speaker, it must be deliberate, it must be sustained, and most importantly, it must be respectful of the people that live there…Mr. Speaker, education in the region like Rupununi is not merely a social service, it is in a vast hinterland region where distance, geography, limited access already place young people at a disadvantage, education.”
He said with over 55 villages, there is dependence on a small number of secondary institutions to educate the children. When those institutions, overburdened or delayed, the impact is felt across the entire region not in theory, but in classrooms, dormitories, and the learning outcomes, he went on to say.
Turning his attention to infrastructural development the MP said that in this region road infrastructure is not just about mobility but also about access to services, economic survival, and public safety. “Mr. Speaker, roads connect villages to school, schools to schools to farms, farms to markets, patients to health care, and communities to opportunity. When road fails, Mr. Speaker, isolation follow and that is a real human cost,” he explained.
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