WIN threatens legal action if no more Region 10 voting rounds in 48 hours

Last Updated on Sunday, 12 October 2025, 22:19 by Writer

The nine We Invest In Nationhood (WIN) councillors in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice) are warning that legal action will be taken if there are no more rounds of voting for the posts of chairman and vice chairman.

Attorney-at-Law Siand Dhurjon indicated that, according to the law, there could possibly be three more rounds of voting after which the fifth and final step in which the Clerk shall choose by lot through a public process for the chairman.

The lawyer called on the Clerk of Council to convene a meeting to elect the chairman and vice chairman of the Regional Democratic Council of Region 10 within 48 hours of receiving that notice to either resume or re-commence the lawful process of election as set out, “failing which proceedings shall be instituted in the Supreme Court of Judicature to compel you to perform your statutory function and to seek all other reliefs necessary to vindicate the interests of my clients and the people of the Region Ten, Upper-Demerara Berbice.”

In a strongly worded pre-action letter to Clerk of Council Dwight John, the councillors’ lawyer Mr Dhurjon told him that it was illegal for him to have referred the tie to the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Priya Manickchand, after only one round of voting.

The lawyer also urged Ms Manickchand, herself a lawyer, not to yield to the Clerk of Council’s request.

“The Minister of Local Government is also hereby forewarned to refrain from treading upon any path of illegality to which she may be invited by yourself, lest she also be made a Respondent to the anticipated proceedings to be filed in the Supreme Court,” the lawyer said.

Representing WIN Councillors Mark Giring, Denzel Chapman, Tamicka Duke, Nandy Miriam Fiedtkou, Michelle Hope, Leola Narine, Yoland Nedd, Judith Wade-Martin and Hubert Williams, the lawyer said taking one round of voting on October 10 was in clear violation of the law.

On that occasion, after a single round of voting, Mr. Goring and Mr. Dominique Blair each received an equality of votes.

The lawyer also informed the Clerk of Council that after that round of voting, “you unceremoniously suspended the process of election of the Chairman of the Region 10 Regional Democratic Council and stated that the Minister would now have to give her casting vote to decide who is the Chairman. The lawyer said he was in possession of a video in which the Clerk of Council was observed claiming that the Minister must make a ‘deliberation’ a ‘pronouncement and ‘her casting vote’.

The lawyer advised Mr John that his suspension of the election process of the Regional Council Chairman and his intention to seek the Minister’s ‘deliberation, pronouncement and casting vote’ is ultra vires, contrary to statute, arbitrary, unreasonable and otherwise illegal.

“There is no longer any power held by the Minister to unilaterally determine and impose the Chairmanship of any Regional Democratic Council, without more,” Mr Dhurjon said.

Instead, the lawyer requested that the Clerk of Council to follow the mandatory procedures set out under sub-sub-sections 20(6)(a) through to (h) of the Local Democratic Organs Act, Cap. 28:09 and otherwise which provide for a second and a third round of voting (if necessary) to break the tie.

He said the Clerk of Council might also be bound to follow sub-sub-sections 20(6)(e), (f) and (g) of the Act if there is yet an equality of votes. “Therein is provided a fourth stage of recording the disposition of each councilor who voted with the aim of attributing to each a corresponding numeric value based on the results yielded at the regional election at which they were elected as councilors. Then you must assign these results accordingly to the candidate for whom each councilor voted, once necessary. Please note that if there is yet an equality of votes, the councilors are entitled to a fifth stage of final recourse where the Clerk shall choose by lot through a public process the Chairman.”