Parties continue to differ on village council results

The controversy over exactly who won the first set of Village Council Elections held on March eighteenth remains anything but settled as both major political parties continue to claim victory. According to the United Democratic Party, information from the rural areas indicates that U.D.P. candidates won a majority of seats in thirty-four villages, the P.U.P. won eleven, independents took one, while another remains undecided. According to the People’s United Party, its candidates were victorious in twenty-eight villages, the U.D.P. took fifteen and independents hold the majority in four. While common sense indicates that somebody–or everybody–is not telling the truth, viewers should bear in mind that in many villages candidates do not openly campaign on party platforms and the elections are officially non-partisan events. The only accurate way to judge is to ask the councillors themselves. To that end on Thursday and Friday’s edition of village voice, we will scroll the names of all newly elected chairpersons and councillors in the forty-seven villages that held elections last Sunday. That public service program airs at two-thirty, six, and eight-thirty p.m. here on Channel 5.