APNU defends its participation in ‘illegal’ council elections

Last Updated on Friday, 10 October 2025, 19:54 by Writer

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Region Four Councillor, Shanika Haynes on Friday defended the decision by her nine councillors to participate in the internal elections for chairman and vice chairman although secret balloting was considered illegal.

“Based on how the makeup is and the very law states there is a quorum. Even if we decided to walk out, these elections would have proceeded so consideration had to be made for that but there are means of challenging things so let’s see,” she said when asked by Demerara Waves Online News.

Regional Executive Officer Donald Gajraj insisted on secret balloting, based on rules by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), despite stiff objections by APNU, We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) and Forward Guyana Movement (FGM). Mr Gajraj did not heed calls for the method of voting to be put to a vote by the councillors who had moments before taken their oaths of office.

Ms Haynes, who lost the elections for both chairman and vice chairman, cited the relevant law, saying that the Regional Executive Officer (REO), executing the duties of clerk, would ask the council to decide whether voting would be done by secret ballot or a show of hands. “He (Mr Gajraj) did not do that. He proceeded to say that it has to be by secret ballot,” she said.

The APNU councillor, who is a People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) member, would not comment on whether an APNU councillor voted for the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) candidates because the latter party won the chairmanship with 18 votes although it has 17 councillors. “I can’t say that because, of course, it was a secret ballot. What I presume from what I saw (that) maybe we had lots of blank ballots, that maybe somebody did not write on it unless they were unsure what they were doing because we did say to persons when you’re going with the paper that you should state who you are voting for,” she said.

Ms Haynes, whose APNU has 9 councillors, won 8 votes. There were 7 blanks and 2 spoilt ballots. We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) has 8 councillors.

While she could not say whether there were any negotiations with WIN, APNU late Friday afternoon said the talks collapsed because WIN wanted to sideline it from the top two posts in a number of regional councils. “In fact, it manifested that WIN was prepared to exclude APNU from chairmanship and vice chairmanship in many regions,” APNU said.

As a result, APNU said it opted to run independently in keeping with its commitment to ensuring that the people it represents continue to benefit from strong, principled, and accountable leadership at the regional level. “Despite genuine efforts by the APNU to arrive at a cooperative framework that would reflect the aspirations of our shared constituents, the parties were unable to finalize an understanding before the elections.”

In light of this, APNU took the decision to move forward independently and to support its own slate of candidates for the positions of regional chairs and vice-chairs,” APNU said in its statement.