The elec­tion of Dood­nath Mayrhoo as Siparia’s first May­or has re­sult­ed in the res­ig­na­tions of two mem­bers from the UNC’s Fyz­abad and La Brea con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tives.

Mayrhoo, a bois­ter­ous char­ac­ter who has been at the fore­front of na­tion­al protests for roads and wa­ter, was elect­ed as May­or with­out op­po­si­tion af­ter serv­ing the UNC for thir­ty years.

All six UNC coun­cil­lors as well as two UNC Al­der­men vot­ed for Mayrhoo, while three PNM coun­cil­lors and two PNM al­der­men ab­stained from the vote.

A par­ty source told Guardian Me­dia that chair­man of the Fyz­abad ex­ec­u­tive and coun­cil­lor for Siparia/West Fyz­abad Ja­son Ali was not hap­py with Mayrhoo be­ing the May­or as Ali be­lieved he was a favourite can­di­date for the post.

How­ev­er, Mayrhoo made a strong lob­by along with Ce­dros coun­cil­lor Shankar Teelucks­ingh both of whom were sworn in as May­or and Deputy May­or on Wednes­day.

Their po­si­tions were sup­port­ed by Oropouche West MP Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo and Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

In a What­sApp mes­sage shared with Guardian Me­dia from a par­ty source, who did not wish to be named, Ali pur­port­ed­ly wrote: “I, Ja­son Ali here­by re­sign as chair­man of the Fyz­abad ex­ec­u­tive.”

An­oth­er mes­sage read: “Tell the May­or to come and try to win Siparia West Fyz­abad.”

Mon De­sir coun­cil­lor Deryck Collin Bowrin who felt side­lined by the par­ty pur­port­ed­ly wrote on the same chat: “I thank every­one for their ad­vice and crit­i­cisms. God bless you all. So I humbly re­sign from the post of PRO for La Brea.”

Guardian Me­dia reached out to Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, coun­cil­lors Ali, Bowrin, Fyz­abad MP Lack­ram Bo­doe and May­or Dood­nath Mayrhoo for a com­ment, but there was no re­sponse.

How­ev­er, Ali’s res­ig­na­tion was al­so made pub­lic by UNC ac­tivist Mar­sha Walk­er who re­cent­ly re­signed as the par­ty’s Diego Mar­tin West co­or­di­na­tor.

On her Face­book page, she post­ed an un­signed let­ter pur­port­ed­ly from Ali which read: “It is with a great de­gree of re­gret and a deep sense of be­tray­al that we the un­der­signed mem­bers of the Fyz­abad Con­stituen­cy Ex­ec­u­tive ten­der our res­ig­na­tion with im­me­di­ate ef­fect. This has been the re­sult of the ut­ter dis­re­gard and con­tempt im­posed on us by the choice and in­stal­la­tion of the Al­der­man and May­or of the Siparia Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion on the 30th of Au­gust, 2023.”

The let­ter fur­ther stat­ed: “It is our firm be­lief that rather than be­ing a dis­ap­point­ment and a tool to a few in per­form­ing our du­ties, we wish to serve the peo­ple and our great par­ty. If this can­not be re­alised in the present sit­u­a­tion it leaves us with no oth­er re­solve but to re­sign.”

Send­ing a mes­sage to the Op­po­si­tion leader about the is­sue, Walk­er took to Face­book and post­ed: “Email af­ter email. Res­ig­na­tion af­ter Res­ig­na­tion. When will you take stock? How can you be preach­ing uni­ty when the par­ty has nev­er been so di­vid­ed? Love is an ac­tion word. Right now all we feel is dis­re­spect.”

Walk­er added: “This is why no amount of good pol­i­cy talk on the plat­form will work. The mes­sage we’re work­ing hard to craft is be­ing lost on the mes­sen­ger. No one trusts you any­more. If you care about the coun­try, call elec­tions now.”

She al­so re­spond­ed to Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia where she said she felt sor­ry for Walk­er and wished her all the best.

“Feel sor­ry for me? You have the whole coun­try suf­fer­ing. We can­not beat the worst-per­form­ing Gov­ern­ment be­cause of you. You should feel sor­ry for the na­tion. Po­si­tions are grant­ed based on who promis­es to keep you in pow­er,” Walk­er wrote.

Dur­ing an in­ter­view on Wednes­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­spond­ed to Walk­er’s call for her to step aside as UNC leader by thank­ing Walk­er for her kind­ness and wish­ing her all the best. Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so stat­ed she had no in­ten­tion of step­ping down.