With Regions across the country moving Monday morning to swear in the new councilors who will make up the new Regional Democratic Councils, Region 8 was unable to do so.
This will see the further delay in the election of a new Chairman and Vice-Chairman to head the Potaro-Siparuni Region.
News Room was reliably informed that the failure to hold elections on Monday was as a result of several proposed Councilors testing positive for COVID – 19.
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has been informed of this and will have to set a new date for the swearing-in of Councilors and the election of the Chair and Vice-Chair.
It would have been interesting to see how that process would have gone with both the APNU+AFC coalition and the People’s Progressive Party being awarded seven seats each on the 15-member Council.
The Liberty and Justice Party secured one seat on the Council with a total of 464 votes.
APNU+AFC secured a total of 2,091 votes while the PPP got 2,050 votes.
This is similar to the situation which occurred in 2015 that led to Bonaventure Fredericks becoming Chairman of the region.
He continues to hold that post until a new Chairman is sworn in by President Irfaan Ali.
Fredericks, who was placed there by the PPP, had later become a regional candidate at the March 2, 2020 polls for the APNU+AFC coalition.
The PPP has so far sought to retain the Chairman in the regions it won.
Fredericks has said in the past that the PPP’s hierarchy has threatened to remove him from the post.
