–Holland skips vote to attend President Hoyte’s memorial

By Naomi Marshall

WANEKA Arrindell was on Friday morning elected the new Mayor of Linden, while Wainwright Bethune was elected deputy mayor as the council ended the two-term stint of businessman Carwyn Holland at the municipality.

However, the new officers will not take up their positions until next year March. The election was done at the Linden Mayor and Town Council building by way of secret voting.
During the nomination period, which was slated for 10 minutes, Arrindell was the only nominee for the position of mayor. Due to this, she was declared the Mayor of Linden.
Nomination for deputy mayor 2018 was done seconds after, whereby Wainwright Bethune and Leroy James were nominated for the position. However, Bethune was elected Deputy Mayor of Linden after receiving five votes to James’s three.

When asked how it feels to be elected mayor, Arrindell said: “It means being at a higher level of servanthood; being able to serve this Council well and to serve the people of Linden. It’s more of giving back.”

Come 2018, Arrindell hopes for more cooperation from the Council, and wishes to fulfil promises made to the people of Linden. “We have roads to do, we have garbage to pick up,” she said.

“We have businesses we should develop, and that’s the vision we want to go forward with in 2018; to make sure that we deliver on our mandate to the people.”
Bethune said he looks forward to working with the councillors as a team, and that they will be cleaning up and improving Linden. “All the other things that we’ve campaigned on, some of the things we would have been doing for the past two years are just to take it from there and try to improve it,” the deputy-elect said, adding:

“I guess the same feeling as a councilor, because one of my mottos is that regardless of if I’m sitting as a councillor or as a mayor, as a deputy mayor, where I am, once I would have lent myself to this process of municipality, is to give my best at all time [sic], be respectful of what capacity I function in.”

Unfortunately, Carwyn Holland was absent from the ceremony due to being out of the district at the time of the election. Holland was seen on Friday morning attending the 15th death anniversary observance of the Late President Desmond Hoyte at the Botanical Gardens.

Holland had indicated on Sunday that he would not have contested the mayorship, declaring that he was not interested in running for a third term.
“I have interest in furthering my studies, so that I can better contribute to Linden and Guyana’s development,” he said. “I’ve already set out to have my studies next year, from next September.”

Holland said he is happy with the job that he had done during his time as mayor. “When I took over Linden, you would recall that Linden was in dire need, and I think I would have achieved quite a lot,” he said.

He told the Guyana Chronicle that he is grateful for having had the opportunity of serving Linden up until March 2018, and intends to make the best of his time left as mayor.
Weeks ago, councillors of the Linden Town Council had accused Holland of treating staff with disdain and flouting the laws of Guyana. The accusation was denied by Holland. The latter accusation has to do with his instructing his secretary not to allow then Deputy Mayor Arrindell into his office in his absence.