National Toshaos Conference begins July 16

 

• Full engagement with President, ministers and agency officials

DPI, Guyana, Wednesday, June 20, 2018

The 12th annual National Toshaos Conference (NTC), which brings together toshaos and other leaders from Guyana’s 215 hinterland communities, will be held from July 16 to 20.

The conference at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre (ACCC), Liliendaal will allow the opportunity for toshaos, senior councillors and community development chairpersons to have engagements with the president and ministers, and officials from various government agencies.

It is aimed at consolidating and expanding the national development and transformation processes to cater to the need of indigenous people. It will also address issues such as land titles and demarcations, education, health, security and infrastructure.

Prior to the holding of the conference, some 178 communities have already held village elections where new leaders were elected to serve their respective communities.

A new Executive Committee of the NTC will also be elected. The process is usually conducted by the Guyana Elections Commissions (GECOM) to enable complete transparency. The electoral process will see the casting of ballots in every administrative region since this allows for the selection of the executives, based on a majority vote. From the twenty executives, a chairman, secretary and treasurer will be elected.

Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Sydney Allicock explained that “we are looking at a programme that is going to see the new executive coming in, but the old executive is going to transition slowly. Three days into the activities, they will have the nomination for the new executive, and then they (new executives) flow into their new office.”.

He said the idea is to give the sitting executives a proper “send-off” in recognition of their hard work and contributions over the past three years.

By: Synieka Thorne.