GEORGETOWN — Local Government Minister Priya Manickchand says she has no legal authority to intervene in the Region Ten leadership stalemate and insists the tie must be broken strictly through the lawful process already outlined in the Local Democratic Organs Act.
Region Ten remains without a sworn-in Chairman more than a month after the October 2025 Regional Democratic Council elections produced a 9–9 split between WIN candidate Mark Goring and APNU’s Dominique Blair. The political impasse has since left the RDC unable to fully function, drawing national attention and growing frustration among residents.
Speaking on radio with Gordon Moseley Monday morning, Manickchand made it clear that her office cannot legally break the tie.
“Minister no longer has a role to determine who is going to become the chairman if you have a tie. There’s a process and that process has to be engaged,” she explained.
Under the amended legislation, the Clerk of the RDC is required to conduct up to three separate votes. If all three end in a deadlock, a numeric seat-value calculation, based on the votes each party earned in the regional election, must be applied. Only if that too fails to break the tie will the final step be triggered: choosing the winner by lot, in the presence of a magistrate and the public.
Manickchand said she expects Region Ten officials to resume that procedure soon.
“There’s a clerk and the clerk would have to be in charge of that process,” she noted. “I have no doubt Region Ten’s process will move forward and a chair and vice chair would be determined.”
She acknowledged that political tensions in the region appear to be slowing progress, but she defended the decision to remove ministerial tie-breaking power from the law.
“You have a politically partisan minister… how do you think that’s going to work? Even if the minister is fair, it would appear unfair, and justice must appear to be fair.”
As political parties continue to strategize behind the scenes, Region Ten remains at a standstill, its leadership uncertain, its residents waiting for clarity, and the law now positioned to deliver the final outcome.
