PROVIDING that they win Local Government Elections 2018 in Kwakwani, the Kwakwani United For Progress (KUFP) promises to take the community from “depressed” to one that is “sustainable.”

This was told to the Guyana Chronicle during an interview with Constituency Three Representative, Maleeka Russel, who noted that the independent group wants “Kwakwani being a community that would move from depressed to a community that is sustainable economically, socially and get all the necessary services that are going to make a person better than they were yesterday.”

Operating under the theme, “Growth and Development through transparency and inclusiveness,” the group is seeking to place the interest of the people first.
The group’s main focus is on road development, education, sports and promoting development amongst the residents of Kwakwani.

“So far [for] our main focus, we’ve always been focused on road development, education, sports and promoting development among residents. Basically looking at opportunities and making use of those opportunities in whatever area possible,” Russel noted.
KUFP was formed in 2015 after it was announced by Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, that Local Government Elections would resume in 2016. Persons within the community formed the group, since they felt as though the people were not being represented.

“In June 2015, after minister announced that they will be having a local government election in 2016, we decided that we are going to form a group that is going to contest in the local government election. That came about because we thought that the persons that were representing the parties were just there to represent the party and not the people of Kwakwani,” Russel said.

In March 2016, the group contested the Local Government Elections in which they won the majority of the votes; however, the group was only allocated five out of the 12 seats.
“Having five of the 12 seats, it was kind of lil hard for us to actually carry out some of the things that we promised residents; we would have done because the majority was AFC and APNU, so they always give us a fight in terms of having our plans fulfilled,” said Russel, as she explained the challenges of having a limited number of seats.

However, Russel highlighted that the group is not an opposition to the government.
“One of the things to note is that we are not an opposition to the government. We are just here to make sure that residents’ interests [are not forsaken],” she added.

The other representatives are Faye Rodriguez, Constituency One; Lyndon Mc Almont, Constituency Three; Petranella Pollard, Constituency Four; Jennifer Edwards, Constituency Five; and Loraine Fordyce, Constituency Six.

Russel is encouraging persons to vote wisely, adding, “I always say, vote wise. Vote for people that will represent you, not for persons who are there to represent a party.”