…political groups miss submission deadline at Linden Nomination Day exercise

FOLLOWING the tardiness of two independent groups at Friday’s Local Government Elections (LGEs) Nomination Day in Linden, the race is now solely up to the major political parties that were able to submit their candidates for the eight constituencies, in a timely manner.

These are the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), the Alliance For Change (AFC), the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and the United Republican Party (URP). The New Horizon Movement and Linden for Lindeners were the two independent parties that were unsuccessful in submitting their lists, as they missed the 14:00hrs deadline by minutes.

There was much o pomp and ceremony in front of the GECOM Mackenzie office, as the parties turned up with their members and supporters in the respective party colours, waving their flags and chanting as they submitted their nominees.

The APNU was the early bird catching the first worm as representatives were on a shift system since Thursday morning, according to one member, just to ensure their submissions were done first. “We ready” were the first words to come out of Campaign Manager Valerie Yearwood’s mouth, as she exited the office after completing the submission process. This was then echoed by an army of supporters clad in green, waving the APNU flag as they prepared to march the streets of Mackenzie. Yearwood said that the party will now go into full campaign mode, now that its lists have been submitted and everything was ok with same.

Much to the heckles of AFC Campaign Manager Audwin Rutherford and his AFC members, Yearwood managed to keep her voice above as she spoke with the media. She said that the strategy was to be first and it is a good start. “If we win this race today, then we are going to win every other race and I feel good as the campaign manager, we worked hard, wee hours we put it, so we have the output that is required and the output that is expected and as we go forward, we are in full campaign mode right now, we are sending a message to the yellow and the red, we are ready!” Yearwood said to loud applause and chants from her supporters.

She boasted that the APNU was the only party that had primaries, since it wanted to be transparent and put power into the hands of the people as she joked about the AFC turning up with nine and a half supporters as opposed to her scores.

AFC Campaign Manager Audwin Rutherford, however, said that it is not about big numbers and who came first, since he is pleased that the AFC was the third batsman in the game and the third batsman is always the best, while the champion in the ring always enters last. “Victory is not only winning the majority, victory is representing the people and I’m sure we will have a voice in the council and that voice will be heard also,” he said, since he is confident that the AFC will have majority seats. With those voices, there will be significant changes, since the AFC has a mixture of youth and experience, which also includes a top-ranking administrator,” Rutherford said. Defending the party’s decision to not hold primaries, Rutherford added that if numbers are relative to what other parties are calling consultation, he believes it is far from the case. “The numbers there suggest that they are speaking to themselves,” Rutherford said. The AFC, he noted, has the interest of Linden at heart and will be looking carefully to see what the problems are, to initiate a better trajectory.

The PPP campaign manager, Akanni Blair, expressed hearty confidence that the party will dominate the seats of the municipality come November, even though this was never done in the history of the municipality of Linden. He said that this time around however, the political climate and economic situation have allowed the PPP to stand an inside chance of capturing a few constituencies in this town. He even thanked the outgoing councillors for portraying a behaviour that gives them a window of opportunity to win. “These LGEs, we are excited about them and we believe that if the voting public gives us that opportunity, we are going effect change like never before in this town of Linden. This municipality would have suffered immensely and we would have made the changes that are required for the upward mobility of this town; it has been overdue for too long and we know that we are going to do better than the previous council in this municipality.”

While the rhetoric in Linden, is that the town would have been marginalised and development was stagnated under the PPP Government, Blair boasted of the housing schemes that were commenced by the PPP, even though he confessed they were never completed. He alluded to the present situation where roads are being completed by APNU+AFC, but they are stopping in front of the homes of government officials. All this he said, will change if the PPP is elected to the municipality.

The United Republican Party had a strong support base of youths, but was led by well-known PPP stalwart, community activists and former councillor Eon Hall. Hall said that he was initially a URP member, but after the party became dormant, he started working for former Prime Minister Samuel Hinds. He expressed confidence that the URP, with its youthful base, will capture seats in the municipality and with his experience and genuine interest in the people, which is reflected in the various community projects on which he has embarked, the town of Linden will experience the change it deserves. He shunned the outgoing Council for mismanaging the funds it has garnered, since he said while he was a councillor, less money was available, but more was done. Drainage, garbage collection and infrastructural development are some of the areas on which the URP will be focusing.
Nomination Day now leaves the parties about less than two months to whip up votes for the 16 seats on the council. Even with such limited time, many residents, especially youths, are still calling for more sensitisation to be done on the entire process of LGEs, so they can get involved. At the 2016 LGEs, there was a very low youth turnout in Linden. Political parties are hoping that this will not be the case, come November.