HGP Nightly News – PNCR General Secretary Sherwin Benjamin is accusing the Government of deliberately weakening opposition-controlled local authorities, warning that the pressure now being placed on Georgetown is part of a much broader pattern unfolding across the country.
Speaking to Nightly News in an exclusive interview, Benjamin said the problem goes beyond the capital and extends to “all the communities that are managed by APNU, AFC, or APNU council.” In his view, there has been “a position, a posture of the government to starve those NDCs and township of funds with the sole aim to control.”
He argued that the current moment should be of concern not only to residents of Georgetown, but to citizens in other opposition-led municipalities and neighbourhood democratic councils as well. For Benjamin, the issue is not simply about administration or road works, but about preserving local democracy and preventing what he sees as an effort to centralise power.
According to him, Georgetown has long suffered from neglect and inadequate support from central government. “The government owes a fair share of taxes, I presume,” he said, while arguing that City Hall has not been given “the type of resources to assist in doing what they’re supposed to do.” He also claimed that “everything that the city proposes has been stymied or blocked by the government,” leaving the council to operate under severe constraints.
Benjamin said that makes the current push for greater central control even more troubling. In his view, the Government is now using “the heavy hand” to take over roads and streets “without consultation,” while still speaking publicly about democracy. He described those actions as “undemocratic at best.”
He said the issue also has major implications for the future of local government elections. “That is why it is important that we participate in local government elections to ensure that there is no total control by the PPP,” Benjamin said. His argument is that if these moves go unchallenged, local democratic bodies could gradually lose both their authority and their ability to function independently.
For the PNCR General Secretary, what is unfolding is not an isolated dispute about Georgetown, but part of a larger political strategy. His message was that opposition-led councils are being put under pressure in a way that threatens their autonomy, weakens their operations and chips away at the principle of local democratic governance.
