WITH Local Government Elections less than a month away, Attorney-at-Law and independent candidate for Constituency Nine in the municipality of Georgetown Mayo Robertson is calling on residents to throw their support behind independent candidates like himself and civil groups.

“I believe once the political parties contest at the local level, what we have is that they import into the local politics the political tribalism, the issues that divided them for so long, and those issues have no place in our local communities because for people who live in our communities the issues are essentially local,” Robertson told the Guyana Chronicle.
Robertson, who has been a lawyer since 1975 and has a background in business management and international development, said residents of Constituency Nine, which consists of all of Lodge, Durban Backlands, and Meadowbrook Gardens, need more than politics.

“We want safe streets, we want community activities, we want programmes for our young people, we want to make sure that whomever represents us at the local level is just a simple phone call or a simple visit away and once the parties get into the process, the process becomes a little more difficult for the average consumer to access their representatives,” Robertson explained.

According to the attorney, in Durban Backlands, the municipality has done little to nothing to improve the livelihoods of residents there.
“I haven’t seen any perceptible impact of municipal government in my area over the life of this new municipality,” he said.

He said checks with residents in other parts of the constituency have confirmed his belief that the Mayor and City Council, which took office in 2016 following the historic Local Government Elections, has failed to address many issues in Constituency Nine.
“Areas like Princes Street, Lodge for instance, a lot of work needs to be done. You can’t describe the Princes Street Road between Vlissingen Road and Mandela Avenue as nothing more than appalling. There are huge craters on the road to the point where taxi cabs would not take people into those areas, and on the canal side of Princes Street the grass hasn’t been cut, it would appear for months,” Robertson pointed out.

Mosquito infestation due to overgrown vegetation in the areas, and poor lighting facilities in the constituency, are among other issues plaguing residents, he said. Robertson said among his plans is the development of a mentorship programme for the young people in his constituency.

Cognisant of the fact that it would take financial resources to correct many of the issues facing residents, Robertson said the Georgetown City Council, which continues to experience dire financial constraints, would need to come up with creative ways of securing finances, and he has some ideas to share, if elected.

“The City Council has to come up with creative ways to increase revenues; and that points to another reason why we should keep the national parties out of it because there is so much of a history of animosity between the parties so that those issues prevent them from looking at creative ways from dealing with the localities; and I believe that independent candidates are able to focus strictly on the city at large and the municipality in particular,” Robertson said.

Independent Candidate Michael Okombo Williams, on Nomination Day, had expressed similar sentiments. Williams, who is contesting Constituency Four in the Municipality of Georgetown, told the Guyana Chronicle that little was done for his constituency though there were many promises. “There were many expectations but there have not been many fulfilments. So I thought it best, in the interest of my constituency, and in the interest of the residents there, to go independently,” Williams said.

According to him, if elected to serve on the Council, he will work to address the issues facing his constituency. “Drainage, sanitation and security, those are three of our primary concerns, not forgetting pest control measures. So my intent is to focus heavily, should I be elected, on those issues,” the independent candidate said.

Along with independent candidates, a number of civil groups are challenging the major political parties in the November 12 Local Government Elections. The major parties are the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), the Alliance For Change (AFC), the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) and the United Republican Party (URP).