Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Deputy may­or of San Fer­nan­do Dr Navi Mu­radali will take the oath of of­fice as may­or on Fri­day in a spe­cial pub­lic swear­ing-in cer­e­mo­ny on Har­ris Prom­e­nade. Mu­radali con­firmed the cer­e­mo­ny yes­ter­day as well as the elec­tion of two al­der­men. The cer­e­mo­ny will take place op­po­site City Hall on the San Fer­nan­do Band­stand. Schools in the area have been in­vit­ed to send stu­dents to be part of the event.

Murdali was se­lect­ed to re­place for­mer may­or Mar­lene Coudray who was ap­point­ed Min­is­ter of Gen­der, Youth and Child De­vel­op­ment last Fri­day when Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced changes to her Cab­i­net. At 38, Mu­radali, a fa­ther of one, will be among the youngest San Fer­nan­do may­ors to hold the post in the sec­ond city. Mu­radali said he want­ed to have a pub­lic swear­ing-in to demon­strate how he in­tend­ed to con­duct busi­ness.

"I think it rep­re­sents open­ness and trans­paren­cy. (Hold­ing it) in the pub­lic do­main will give res­i­dents of the city of San Fer­nan­do the op­por­tu­ni­ty to ob­serve an elec­tion of al­der­men and the in­au­gu­ra­tion of a may­or," he added. Mu­radali, a med­ical doc­tor and a den­tal sur­geon by pro­fes­sion, comes from a po­lit­i­cal fam­i­ly. His fa­ther, Naz­im, was a for­mer MP for Na­pari­ma.

He de­clined to com­ment on Coudray's tenure as may­or since, he said: "It is re­al­ly for the peo­ple to judge her per­for­mance, as they would judge any oth­er elect­ed of­fi­cial." Mu­radali said be­ing named may­or is "a very hum­bling ex­pe­ri­ence and I do hope that I can de­liv­er good gov­er­nance to the res­i­dents of the city of San Fer­nan­do."