Ravin Singh

Despite calls for the major political parties to refrain from competing in Local Government Elections (LGE), and those parties refusing to do so, the votes after the close of polls on Friday revealed just why they belong in the process.Claiming a landslide victory in the two most competitive constituencies in Georgetown was the APNU+AFC coalition, which had been threatened initially by the emergence of voluntary groups that relied on grassroots supporters and unorthodox techniques. One of these groups was Team Benschop for Mayor, which was led by political activist Mark Benschop. He was able to rally the support of scores of persons in the lead-up to these elections, and it had positioned him nicely to contend as a favourite to win his constituency convincingly.

Running against APNU+AFC’s Sherod Duncan, who had already been made popular around the city by his involvement in several environmental initiatives, Benschop unexpectedly suffered severe blows at the polls.

And while this was not entirely credited to the low voter turnout, Duncan has proven his superiority, given the support of the coalition behind him.

Duncan’s involvement at the community level had provided him with an early advantage of being informed on some of the issues affecting Georgetown, and on policies to remedy those issues. Apart from his community work, he was able to skilfully articulate his positions during the Georgetown debates in the lead-up to elections, pinning him as one of the favourites.

Being informed, having the support of Central Government, and being featured in the media quite often, the coalition candidate had done enough to secure victory, though these were based on unofficial calculations.

At South Ruimveldt Secondary School, in constituency 14, Benschop managed to get 40 votes while Duncan registered 269. At the Ruimveldt Day Care Centre, Benschop managed to secure only 16 votes, while Duncan secured 105. Team Legacy’s Saiku Andrews managed to record 35 votes.

At another polling station, at the popular ‘Sir Leon Residence’, Benschop barely managed to get 20 votes, while the coalition’s candidate attracted 129 votes.

At Dynasty Night Club, which served as a polling station, Benschop received only nine votes while Duncan got 26.
At Roxanne Burnham Nursery School, Duncan managed to secure 215 votes while Benschop got 62. And at South Ruimveldt Primary, where most of the voting was done, Duncan recorded 478 votes while Benschop got a mere 64.

Former Deputy City Mayor Patricia Chase-Green dominated constituency 12, with no candidate posing any form of threat to her electoral bid.