Promi­nent Ari­ma busi­ness­man Bal­li­ram Ma­haraj will be sworn in as Ari­ma’s may­or at 9.30 am to­day. This was con­firmed last week by the CEO of the Ari­ma Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion Cheryl Sir­ju-Chong.

The func­tion will be held at the Up­per (Phase 4) Mal­abar Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre and will be at­tend­ed by Ari­ma MP Pen­ne­lope Beck­les and oth­er dig­ni­taries.

Ari­ma is the fi­nal cor­po­ra­tion where a may­or will be sworn in fol­low­ing the Au­gust 14 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions. The PNM won all sev­en elec­toral dis­tricts. How­ev­er, the Op­po­si­tion UNC has filed an elec­tion pe­ti­tion con­cern­ing the re­sults in Ari­ma North­east which will be de­ter­mined by the court on No­vem­ber 28.

Ma­haraj, who will be an al­der­man, will be­come Ari­ma’s 46th may­or, suc­ceed­ing Cagney Cas­simire.

Ari­ma’s first may­or was Charles Pam­phile Lopez (1888-1891). Ma­haraj, 80, is a house­hold name in Ari­ma. He heads the Ma­haraj Group of Com­pa­nies and is known for his con­tri­bu­tions to the un­der­priv­i­leged, sports and cul­ture. He is the hold­er of the Cha­co­nia Medal Gold.

Al­so to be sworn in on Mon­day are Deputy May­or Jo­van Roberts, PNM al­der­men Derek King and Irene Med­i­na and UNC al­der­man Vedya Ma­habir.

The PNM’s sev­en Ari­ma coun­cil­lors that were sworn in on Au­gust 26 in­clud­ed Kim Gar­cia, the Ari­ma North­east can­di­date who is the sub­ject of the UNC’s elec­tion pe­ti­tion.

Af­ter a tie on elec­tion night with UNC’s Jairz­ing­ho Rigs­by, a re­count was done by the EBC which the UNC won. There was a sub­se­quent call by the PNM for two bal­lots to be checked and Gar­cia got two more votes and was de­clared the win­ner.