The A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is celebrating its landslide victory in its stronghold Linden at the Local Government Elections that were held on Monday. Out of a total of 10,466 valid votes cast, the APNU secured 8002 votes allowing the party to hold on to all eight constituencies contested and six out of the eight First Past the Post seats. One of the candidates emerging with the most votes was Sharma Solomon who secured 1,980 votes in constituency one while Lessa Thorne secured 1,399 for constituency seven. Many constituencies are hoping that Solomon is nominated for the position of Mayor and Vanessa Kissoon from constituency two is nominated as Deputy Mayor.
Solomon who campaigned heavily for the APNU was confident of the victory and said that serving in the council will be driven on addressing the issues facing the people. Residents of Linden have for years expressed concern with the incompetence of the council in aggressively tackling issues such as garbage collection and solid waste management, rehabilitation of municipality roads and drainage etc.
On elections day Solomon said, I have done quite a lot it terms of ensuring we bring representation to the people of Amelia’s Ward and we have advanced many of the causes they may have in terms of seeing Amelia’s Ward as one of the largest community in the Caribbean,” he said.
Relative to all the candidates, Solomon said the APNU candidates are experienced professionally and have Linden’s best interest at heart.
Meanwhile APNU Member of Parliament Jermaine Figueira said the victory was a sure one despite being disadvantaged financially compared to the PPP/C. He accused the PPP of using tactics to ‘buy votes with the cash grant distribution, football promotion and strategic contract distribution to identify communities. These were however welcomed he said since it put food on the table of many households.
“The campaign was executed with some challenges but the campaign team managed skillfully with much help and support from a lot of ordinary Lindeners home and abroad who assisted by sharing the information and messages in their respective communities, social gatherings and on social media platforms. The collective approach of many in whatever way contributed and helped significantly to the overall success of the campaign. Our people are intelligent voters and no amount of political gamesmanship, threats or bullying could deter them on how to exercise their franchise,” he said.
In Kwakwani the APNU won four of the six seats.
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