Municipal elections in Cayenne: fratricidal and ideological duels | EUROtoday

One month earlier than the primary spherical of municipal elections, there are 5 heads of the checklist operating for the seat of mayor of Cayenne, the regional capital of Guyana. However, from the Mirza to Mont-Lucas districts, all of the bookmakers are betting on a duel between the outgoing councilor, Sandra Trochimara (SE), 63, and the senator of the Rally of Independent Progressive Democrats (RDPI) Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horth, 68, mayor of Cayenne from 2010 to 2020.

The two know one another completely and co-founded, in 2016, the left-wing occasion New Force of Guyana (NFG). It is below this banner that M^me Phinéra-Horth gained a second municipal election in 2020. Then, just a few months later, the senatorial elections compelled her at hand over her mandate to her first deputy, Sandra Trochimara.

Six years later, a spot has widened between the 2. M^me Phinéra-Horth described this alternative within the native press as “casting error” and needs to take management of the future of the town. “ Several projects implemented in 2020 have not been finalized. We must modernize this city because today Cayenne is dead “, she justifies.

However, a year ago, the two women were still campaigning in the same party, before M^me Trochimara left in February 2025, creating a split within the municipal council. In the process, thirteen advisors and deputies loyal to M^me Phinéra-Horth saw their delegations withdrawn. The accompanying compensation was paid to elected officials supporting M^meTrochimara “in order to enhance their commitment”specifies a municipal council report from September 2025 consulted by The World. “Pure political patronage”denounces the senator.

Questioned about these facts, M^me Trochimara has evaded and does not wish to enter into the controversy. The elected official does not need to return the blows: the legal setbacks of her opponent are enough to discredit her. M^me Phinéra-Horth was in fact sentenced in December 2025 to two years’ suspended prison sentence for concealment of property resulting from embezzlement of public funds, found guilty by the courts of having received between 2013 and 2016 a speech therapist’s salary without exercising activity at the Cayenne Hospital Center. This sentence was also accompanied by two years of ineligibility, but the senator appealed, thus allowing her to compete in the municipal elections.

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