Kwakwani United for Progress (KUFP) – the only independent group that won the popular vote in the area at the last Local Government Elections – is proving to be a force to be reckoned with ahead of this year’s November polls.
The Kwakwani United For Progress (KUFP) won 422 votes in the area at the 2016 Local Government Elections – a huge win over the APNU+AFC Coalition which won 328 votes and the PPP which garnered only 56 votes.
“In 2016, we said we are going to be a new set of people, we are going to set a pathway for Kwakwani…whereby the voice of the people will be heard, the interest of the people will be put first and not the interest of a party,” said Juanita Leacock, a member of the KUFP and also Chair of the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC).
From 2016 to present, the group was not only able to gain more support from residents of the Region Ten community, but it has also managed to steal two of the coalition councillors on the NDC – Carl Liverpool and Jennifer McPherson.
“They saw our side and what we wanted to give to the people of Kwakwani…they were not satisfied with what the coalition side was doing,” Leacock told News Room during a recent interview.
Going into this year’s election, the group is promising that if re-elected, it will continue to push for development in the areas of road upgrade, sanitation and job creation. This, Leacock said, will be done after adequate consultations with residents in the predominantly logging and mining community.
“A lot of things in the past was done undercover or behind closed doors, nobody knew what was coming for Kwakwani until it already passed…we’re trying to get the opinion of the community before we go forward with projects or any developmental aspect,” of the community, she said.
The group is planning to seek outside funding to address roadworks and drainage in the community as the Government subvention cannot do all that is needed.
“So many years of infrastructure neglect, our budget cannot offset that,” she said.
The group has a total of 30 members.
It is among 21 were voluntary/community groups contesting this year’s local Government elections slated for November 12th, 2018.
