Amid concerning developments at the APNU-dominated Mayor and Town Council of New Amsterdam, General Secretary of the governing People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo said the party will not allow its councillors to be stifled or bullied as they attempt to serve citizens in the township.
“These [PPP/C] councillors have been doing extraordinary work and it frightens APNU and AFC and I have no doubt that the minions in the council there have been given instructions from the centre leadership to try to muzzle our councillors.
“One way of doing this is to fabricate an issue and suspend the councils but this will not stand, we will not allow it to happen, “ Jagdeo said at a press conference on Thursday from the party’s Georgetown headquarters – Freedom House.
Though he did not mention the names of any parties in conflict, Carol Trim- Bagot, a PPP/C councillor, was recently suspended from the Council.
She was accused of being disruptive and disrespectful towards Mayor Wainwright McIntosh and other councillors. Trim- Bagot, in turn, accused the Mayor of bullying and acting outside of his official capacity and positioned herself as a defender of democratic principles against those authoritarian tactics.
Jagdeo maintained that the PPP/C’s six councilors, increasing from two in the historically PNC stronghold, have been diligently engaging citizens, raising their concerns at the council level and connecting them with opportunities from central government.
APNU, contrastingly, has eighth councillors in the Council they once entirely controlled and Jagdeo accused them of being “anti-development.”
Because of what he believes is growing support for the PPP/C in the town that has long been an APNU stronghold, Jagdeo contended that the APNU councillors may be manufacturing conflicts.
“Their whole approach is to stifle dissenting voices and bully people into submission,” he said, adding that the PPP/C will not let this happen.
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