FORMER Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green who secured a victory in constituency 12 at the recently held Local Government Elections (LGE) has been tipped to be the next Mayor of Georgetown.

An anticipated victory for the APNU+AFC coalition in the Georgetown municipality positioned the party to control the voting process at the level of council. The APNU+AFC secured 25 seats, Team Benschop one and the PPP and Team Legacy claimed two each.

Chase-Green, who is former Deputy Mayor, Oscar Clarke a former councillor and People’s National Congress General-Secretary, and AFC’s Sherod Duncan all registered victories in their constituencies.

It was touted heavily that the Mayor would emerge from among these three, given their services and experience at the local government level. And while Duncan was originally tipped to serve in this capacity, the government official revealed yesterday that Chase-Green would serve as Hamilton Green’s replacement. Chase-Green had defeated her competitors in constituency 12, with none of them posing any real threat to her. She began serving as a councillor in 1993.
Meanwhile, the source confirmed that Duncan will be elected Deputy Mayor. Duncan had contested the most competitive constituency, and had emerged victorious, having beaten political activist Mark Benschop, who many thought would have created an upset. In the lead-up to the elections, Duncan rose to fame around the city through his involvement in several environmental initiatives. And having the support of the coalition under his belt, he proved his superiority at the polls.
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 the victory. On Friday, the 30-member council will be officially sworn in and both the Mayor and Deputy Mayor will be elected. A person would have to be nominated by a councillor and that nomination seconded by another for any person to be considered for the post. After the nomination, the council then votes and the councillor with the clear majority will be elected to the post.

In other municipalities where the coalition registered victories such as New Amsterdam, it was revealed that the APNU will be awarded the mayoral post, while an AFC member will occupy the deputy mayoral position. This was reportedly agreed upon by the coalition who had intense discussions on the allocations of seats at the level of council. (Ravin Singh)