WIN abstains from Region 4 council vote after plans with APNU collapse, says Sarabo-Halley

Last Updated on Friday, 10 October 2025, 19:43 by Writer

We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) on Friday abstained from voting for a chairman and a vice chairman of Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) in protest at A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) disallowing the political newcomer to chair Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice), a senior WIN official said.

WIN executive member Tabita Sarabo-Halley confirmed that her party’s 8 Region Four councillors opted not to vote for anyone for either of the two top posts in the region after APNU failed to keep its promise. “I’ll be quite frank with you. There were discussions with the APNU and our original position was to come in and support the APNU for the position of chairmanship and hopefully they would support use for the position of vice chair,” she told reporters in the compound of the Region Four council office at Triumph, East Coast Demerara.

But APNU said in a late Friday afternoon statement that it decided to move forward independently in the elections for regional chairpersons and vice chairpersons because it failed to reach a political agreement with WIN. APNU said despite genuine efforts by it to arrive at a cooperative framework that would reflect the aspirations of its shared constituents, the parties were unable to finalise an understanding before the elections.

“In fact, it manifested that WIN was prepared to exclude APNU from chairmanship and vice chairmanship in many Regions,” APNU said.

APNU added that decision reflected its commitment to ensuring that the people we represent continue to benefit from strong, principled, and accountable leadership at the regional level.

APNU says it remains open to future dialogue and collaboration with all political stakeholders in pursuit of unity, good governance, and development.

“We reaffirm our dedication to serving the interests of all citizens and to advancing policies that promote inclusion, integrity, and progress across the regions,” APNU added.

Demerara Waves Online News was informed that the vote for the chairmanship of Region 10 was tied 9-9 for APNU’s Dominique Blair and WIN’s Mark Goring. It is now up to the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development to summon a meeting and cast her vote in favour of one of the councillors.

She said all of that changed after WIN saw that APNU and the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) “apparently worked together” to block WIN from getting the chairmanship of Region 10. As a result, she said WIN opted not to vote in the Region Four internal council elections to “see what would happen without our vote.” “Our abstention showed that there was some form of collusion between APNU and the PPP even at this level for the position of chairmanship,” she said. She noted that the PPPC has 17 councillors but “somehow” got 18 votes without her party. Ms Sarabo-Halley said the 8 blanks came from WIN.

The Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) lone councillor voted for APNU.

Asked if WIN had held any talks with the PPP, she said there were none and ruled out that happening under such circumstances. “We have had no discussions with the PPP. We don’t intend on working with the PPP in this type of manner,” she said.

Ms Sarabo-Halley said WIN was “prepared to work with APNU because it has the second highest votes in the region combined hopefully with FGM to maintain their hold in Region Four at the RDC (Regional Democratic Council) level.”

On the question of WIN’s willingness to work with APNU although voters had been assured during this year’s general and regional elections campaign that it would not have supported either party, she said it all boiled down to representation. “It was not supporting. It was representing the interest of the people at the RDC level.”

The WIN top official said Friday’s experience shows that it would be a “tall order” working with sister opposition parties. “What happened today (Friday) shows us that that would be an issue because the APNU has decided that they prefer to work with the PPP than to work with WIN,” she added.

The Region Four Chairman, Clemsford Belgrave, and Vice Chairman, Deodat Sawh, are from the PPPC.