–in attempt to criticise Central Gov’t for garbage disposal issue
ALTHOUGH it is the responsibility of City Hall to execute a number of local government duties such as waste collection, the Council, which is controlled by the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), has constantly been criticised for its shortfalls in this regard.

In order to avoid backlash for the subpar management, Opposition members have resorted to twisting the truth and peddling narratives that central government is responsible for these shortcomings.
Recently, newly-elected APNU councillor of the Georgetown Mayor and City Council, Travis Ellis, on a programme streamed on APNU’s Facebook page, said that Albouystown, which is APNU controlled, did not have frequent garbage collection for about two weeks.

Although the newly appointed councillor highlighted a known issue of improper waste management within Georgetown, there was no mention that City Hall is responsible for waste management in the City.
“…And all of a sudden Albouystown garbage stop pick up over two weeks and [that’s] a big concern right now for me in my constituency because the garbage is piling up there…,” Ellis related.

In his view, the irregular garbage collection is evidence that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) will not work with APNU; however, it is up to the Council to maintain the cleanliness of Georgetown.
Ellis, however, stood behind what he was saying and even went a step further and remarked that APNU will try to fix the waste collection issue since the PPP did not do it.

He went on to blame PPP candidate and Albouystown resident, Malcolm Ferreira, who, on a few occasions, attempted to keep the environment clean through various efforts.
Ellis went on to suggest that the current waste management issue in Constituency 10 (Albouystown-Charlestown) is the sole fault of the PPP and not City Hall.

Additionally, he said that poor garbage collection is also connected to the solid waste management unit, which falls under the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC).
For over 27 years now, the City Council has been dominated by the People’s National Congress (PNC)/APNU.
However, notwithstanding the PNC’s dominance, the PPP has been incrementally making significant inroads in Georgetown, as well as a number of other traditional PNC strongholds. In the 2016 LGE, the PPP/C won two out of 30 seats, while in the subsequent 2018 LGEs, they won seven seats.

Earlier this year, Vice-President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, said that he along with all PPP appointed councillors, will push for accountability, transparency and justice regardless of if they win a constituency or not.
Although the party did not win a majority, the PPP added four more seats at the 2023 Local Government Elections (LGE) to the seven it had won in 2018.