City Mayor Ubraj Narine earlier this week raised concerns over the absence of councillors from the PPP/C and AFC at the statutory meetings. Mayor Narine noted it is important for these officials to attend these meetings, since the council wants to be accountable and transparent. But he was especially concerned over the fact that the AFC has not yet indicated the names of their two councillors, noting that he has written to the Leader of the Party- Khemraj Ramjattan indicating that representation for his party is critical.
“The AFC had two councillors resign in 2020 never replace those councillors. I spoke to the leader several time, I even write letters as the Mayor’s office to have those two councillors replaced. To date the AFC have not indicate […] I believe it is necessary for all councillors, elected councillors to come to meetings because stipend is being paid to councillors and you not only need stipend but the business of the constituency needs to go on,” he said.
When contacted for a comment, Mr. Ramjattan said it is now over a year since he has written to GECOM indicating the names of the persons who are to fill the vacant positions but he has not received a response to date.
He explained that there is a process involved in filling these seats.
“The process is that our representative of the list who is Nicholas Trotman for that municipal election that list leader has to inform GECOM and then GECOM will tell the municipality that in accordance of provision of the law whatever section, the new representative for the AFC by the list of the representative so signifying the representatives,” Ramjattan posited.
“We wrote the CEO (Vishnu Persaud) telling him please ensure that these two names will now be councillors in the municipality, I even spoke to Vincent Alexander but the slothfulness is tremendous it seem,” he added.
The names of the persons who would be filling these seats were not shared with MTV News Update but it is important for councillors from the three main parties to be present as these meetings are designed to address issues within the city.
