By: Travis Chase| HGP Nightly News
The race for Region 10 Chairman has ended in a dramatic 9–9 tie, forcing Minister of Local Government Priya Manickchand to convene a special meeting to cast the deciding vote.
The deadlock came after Dominique Blair of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and Mark Goring of the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) Party each received nine votes when councillors went to the polls on Friday.
Following the 2025 General and Regional Elections, WIN secured 9 seats, APNU secured 5, the PPP/C secured 3, and the Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) secured 1 — setting the stage for a closely contested election.
In the aftermath, WIN’s leader, Azruddin Mohamed, accused APNU, the PPP/C, and Forward Guyana of colluding to engineer the stalemate.
“The three of them came together to block democracy in Region 10,” Mohamed alleged in a post on Facebook and reiterated to reporters on the sidelines of the voting process.
However, FGM leader Amanza Walton-Desir swiftly rejected the claim, telling Nightly News via telephone that no collusion occurred and calling on Mohamed to retract his statement.
“There was no such collusion. Mr. Mohamed should withdraw those comments,” Walton-Desir asserted.
The We Invest in Nationhood Party, which secured 10,548 votes in Region 10 during the 2025 polls, had emerged as the largest single party in the region — making Friday’s outcome particularly contentious.
The final decision on who will chair the Region 10 Democratic Council now rests with Minister Priya Manickchand, who will break the tie in the coming days.
