MINISTER of Communities Ronald Bulkan has dismissed claims by the opposition PPP that the appointment of Mabaruma’s first Mayor was illegal, saying he was confident his decision could win any legal challenge.Mabaruma was one of six local authority areas in which a tied result emerged following the March 18 Local Government Elections. Bulkan’s move to also appoint the leaders in the areas other than Mabaruma was also dismissed by the PPP.

Last week, the elected Mabaruma council faced a deadlock after six PPP councillors nominated and voted in favour of their mayoral candidate and six APNU+AFC councillors did the same for their Councillor, Henry Smith, to be Mayor.

Bulkan ruled in favour of the coalition and appointed Smith, who was sworn in Wednesday before President David Granger.

The PPP made reference to the Municipal and District Council’s Act Chapter 28:01 to support their contention that the Minister’s appointment was illegal.

“The PPP is outraged by the illegal, unaccountable, non-transparent actions of the Minister of Communities,” the PPP stated.

According to the PPP, after the Local Government Elections, it sought legal advice on the way forward given the deadlock and by-elections for the top positions in the tied local authority areas were suggested.

Following this, the party noted that it engaged the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to ascertain what its position was.

“On Friday, April 1, 2016, GCEOM’s initial response concurred with the legal advice offered to the PPP. The Chief Executive Officer of GECOM actually undertook to brief the Minister of Communities accordingly,” the PPP said.

The Municipal and Council’s District Act, Section 13, provides for a by-election to choose Mayors or chairmen of Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs).

Bulkan, speaking to reporters at the Ministry of the Presidency, where the Mayors were sworn in Wednesday, suggested that nowhere in the legislation in the Municipal and District Councils Act Chapter 28:01 or the Local Government Act 28:01 does it contemplate that the Mayors will be directly elected by the voters.

“It is always the contemplation in the legislation that the Mayors will be elected by their respective councils and it is in that context that the provisions in the legislation, when read in its entirety, establishes quite clearly that the responsibility for the elections of the Mayors is that of the councilors and in cases where there are ties or the councilors are unable for whatever reason to make such an election [then] that is the prerogative and responsibility of the minister [to make the appointment],” Bulkan stated.

Bulkan therefore did not agree with the position that only in a case where there is a tie in a by-election that the prerogative rests with him to select one of the councillors receiving the greatest number of equal votes to be Mayor.

The PPP had claimed that while the provision exists for by-elections, it recognised the “significant logistics” that that would entail and therefore offered to negotiate a compromise position with the coalition.

“The terms discussed included rotation of the two top positions in the municipality and the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) annually, with the plurality being used to determine the distribution of the local authority areas whose top positions would be shared between the two sides,” the party said.

The PPP claimed that last Sunday the two negotiators – PPP’s Gail Teixeira and APNU+AFC’s Amna Ally – met and Ally, according to the PPP, rejected the earlier terms, and insisted on no rotations.

The party added that in the context of a rejection by the PPP, Ally disclosed that the Minister of Communities would appoint the top positions in all six of those tied local authority areas.

“By Monday April 4th, 2016, the Minister of Communities, in violation of the law, commenced the appointments and completed them by Tuesday, April 5th 2016, even in those where they [APNU+AFC] had not gained a majority of popular votes in those local authority areas,” the PPP stated.

Additionally, the opposition party noted that the elections regulatory body responded to its concerns and question regarding its position on the matter. GECOM had reportedly told the PPP that it was “studying the matter.”

The PPP has maintained its position and said it will protest the decision of Bulkan, including mounting a legal challenge.