UNC to select Mayor today

The party’s deputy chairman Vasant Bharath said the executive will meet today at Rienzi Complex to select a Mayor, deputy mayor, aldermen and chairmen and vice-chairmen of regional corporations, whose tenure (unlike elected councillors) is not automatically extended by the recent Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill 2006.

Parliament recently approved the Bill to fill vacancies that would otherwise have been caused by the Government’s postponement of the local government elections. Bharath said it was the responsibility of the UNC National Executive and not political leader Winston Dookeran to select election candidates.

He quoted the UNC Constitution article 12 A (iv)(g) which states: The National Executive shall “approve candidates to contest elections to the House of Representatives, Municipal Corporations and the Tobago House of Assembly after consultation with the Party’s Organs and institutions.” Meanwhile the Dookeran camp was yesterday reported as saying all nominations to the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) must be signed by Dookeran.