Rian Pieters
The Region Five (Mahaica/Berbice) Regional Democratic Council (RDC) on Thursday failed to break the deadlock among the councilors of the Peoples Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Coalition thus resulting in the meeting ending without any meaningful discussion.
The two sides are in disagreement over whether Region Executive Officer, Ovid Morrison who also the Clerk of Council can perform duties outside of RDC.
Regional Vice Chairman Rian Pieters was forced to adjourn the meeting since the Coalition side of the table maintained that the swearing-in of three new councilors was legal while the PPP is holding out that it was not.
The Region Five RDC has eighteen seats with the Coalition occupying eight.
When the May meeting was called to order, Chairman Vickchand Ramphal recalled seeing three persons at the horseshoe and was told that they were new councilors who took the oath of office before Morrison at a private ceremony.
Ramphal argued then that Morrison did not have the authority in his capacity as REO to perform the ceremony but Morrison and the Coalition Councilors felt otherwise and supported Morrison’s walkout.
The three persons are Frank Wilson, Emerson Benjamin and Marian Fordyce. They would have replaced Carol Joseph and Dolston Huston who resigned and Renie McCalmont who never took her seat.
On Thursday, however, councilors Abel Seetaram of the AFC and Delon Crawford of APNU argued that the REO acted in accordance with the law.
“If we uphold the constitution, we cannot go wrong. The constitution states that any additional councilor should be sworn in by the Clerk,” Crawford said while adding that it was the Clerk of Council who administers the oath of office.
Pieters on the other hand maintained that the Clerk cannot perform the duties as Clerk outside of the RDC.
However, Seetaram questioned whether the REO could attend a function upon an invitation to the Clerk of Council.
Pieters responded by saying that the full council will have to sit and make that decision, whether or not the Clerk of Council will be allowed to attend a function outside of the RDC as the Clark.
On this note, he added that the between RDC meetings, the Chairman acts on behalf of the Council.
Over the past three years, the RDC had only a few successful monthly meetings as the Coalition had initially refused to sit demanding that the Regional Chairman apologise to President David Granger.
That situation existed until the President stepped in and said he needed no apology. The RDC had for months led a walkout stating that he wanted an apology from the Chairman.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, it was Pieters who adjourned the meeting.
“Since the Council is unable to resolve the issue that is before us, I have no choice but to adorn this meeting,” he said as another month went by without the RDC being able to meaningfully address issues affecting that Region.
In June the Regional Chairman had said the entire Region is being set back. He noted that the youths are the once who are mostly affected.
