A year before Municipal Elections: PUP Chairman says the party is seeking out female candidates

Municipal elections are constitutionally due a year from now and as UDP Leader Shyne Barrow indicated, his party is lining up ITS teams in the nine cities and towns. The People’s United Party is doing the same and the party’s chairman, Henry Charles Usher says that they are seeking more women to run. 

Hon. Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service, Constitutional and Political Reform: “We are one year away from municipal elections and certainly the party has started the process of engaging with our municipal teams. We have our national campaign committee which has been activated so they are the ones doing the assessments and they are the ones that will then make recommendations to the National Executive as it happens at every election cycle. The National Executive then opens the window for persons who want to apply to run for any particular seat and then we go from there.”

Reporter: And is the PUP engaging more women this time ? To be part of the slates across the country ?

Hon. Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service, Constitutional and Political Reform: “We always try to make sure that we have as many female candidates as possible but it is a democratic process and sometimes they go through a convention and they’re not successful but we want to make sure that we field as many female candidates as possible.”

By law, municipal elections are mandated for Wednesday, March 6, 2024. General elections are held every five years but the Prime Minister can decide to call them before 2025. In recent history, Prime Ministers Dean Barrow and Said Musa have both called general and municipal elections on the same day. There’s no clue yet on whether PM Briceño will follow suit.