Rishard Khan

Re­porter

rishard.khan@guardian.co.tt

New­ly elect­ed coun­cil­lor for Ari­ma North­east, Kim Gar­cia, be­lieves “democ­ra­cy has pre­vailed”.

She added that she is not fazed by news that the op­po­si­tion Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress is con­sid­er­ing its le­gal op­tions, af­ter a sec­ond re­count un­seat­ed their can­di­date for the dis­trict in the Ari­ma Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion on Thurs­day.

“I’m very con­fi­dent and I am not in any way ei­ther fear­ful or in­tim­i­dat­ed,” the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment can­di­date told Guardian Me­dia fol­low­ing the swear­ing-in cer­e­mo­ny for coun­cil­lors yes­ter­day.

“I look for­ward to serv­ing and that is just my part in my re­spon­si­bil­i­ty as a new­ly elect­ed coun­cil­lor and the op­po­nent is free to do as they wish.”

The Au­gust 14 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions ini­tial­ly saw a tie be­tween Gar­cia and the UNC’s Jairz­in­ho Rigs­by, with each re­ceiv­ing 625 votes.

A re­count was re­quest­ed one day lat­er, on Au­gust 15, by the UNC, and yield­ed an ad­di­tion­al vote to Rigs­by (624) and one less for Gar­cia (623). A sec­ond re­count was con­duct­ed at the re­quest of the PNM. This time, Gar­cia re­ceived 624 votes and Rigs­by 623. In all re­counts, PEP’s Curt Clement re­ceived 81. Fol­low­ing the news, top UNC of­fi­cials told Guardian Me­dia the par­ty was ex­plor­ing le­gal op­tions.

How­ev­er, Ari­ma MP Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, who was al­so once a coun­cil­lor for Ari­ma North­east, said, “due process” was fol­lowed be­fore in­stalling the new coun­cil­lor.

“That’s their de­mo­c­ra­t­ic right but at the end of the day, you have the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion, you have a process that is fol­lowed by law. You had re­counts, you had bal­lots ques­tioned and I’m pret­ty sat­is­fied at the end of the day that due process took place. You have your leg­is­la­tion that is in place,” Beck­les said.

“They were very much present dur­ing all the pro­ce­dures, so if they feel in any way that they want to chal­lenge it—that’s their right,” she added.

Now that she is in­stalled, Gar­cia said she is look­ing for­ward to serv­ing her burgess­es and promised to have clear, open lines of com­mu­ni­ca­tion with them.

In­cum­bent for Ari­ma North­east, Kendal Charles, said he worked close­ly with Gar­cia and is con­fi­dent in her abil­i­ty to lead and serve the dis­trict.

Mean­while, for­mer Ari­ma may­or and D’Abadie/O’Meara MP, Lisa Mor­ris Ju­lian, urged all coun­cil­lors to serve well.

“Put the peo­ple of Ari­ma first al­ways and you will be suc­cess­ful in all your en­deav­ours,” she said.

It’s a sen­ti­ment echoed by Beck­les, as she urged them to serve all the mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty, re­gard­less of their po­lit­i­cal al­le­giances.

Ari­ma Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion CEO, Cheryl Sir­ju-Chong, not­ed that the may­or and al­der­men were yet to be sworn in, as they are await­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion from the EBC.