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Mercy Williams elected new Mayor of Kochi

Staff Reporter

The first woman Mayor of Kochi gets 47 votes

NEW RESPONSIBILITIES: New Mayor of Kochi Corporation Mercy Williams accepts a bouquet from the former Mayor C.M. Dinesh Mani soon after the swearing-in ceremony on Thursday. District Collector A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish looks on. Photo:Vipinchandran

KOCHI: LDF candidate Mercy Williams on Thursday became the first woman to don the Mayor's garb and preside over the Kochi Corporation council. She was sworn in by District Collector A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish. Her first official job was to swear in C.K. Manisankar as the Deputy Mayor of the Council.

Prof. Williams was elected the 16th Mayor of the Council and Mr. Manisankar the Deputy Mayor in an open ballot. BJP councillor Shyamala Prabhu, representing the seventh division of the Corporation, abstained from voting.

The open ballot resulted in 47 votes in favour of Prof. Williams and 23 in favour of Winne Abraham, the mayor candidate of the United Democratic Front.

The name of Prof. Williams, elected to the council from the 36th division of the Corporation, Kunnumpuram, was proposed by Mr. Manisankar, a CPI(M) councillor from Ponnurunni.

Her candidature was seconded by M.M. Chellammal, the CPI(M) councillor from Karuvelipady.

Ms. Abraham was elected to the council from the 65th division of the Corporation in Ernakulam North on Congress ticket. Ms. Abraham's name was proposed by councillor T.J. Vinod while T.K. Padmanabhan, a Congress councillor from Girinagar, seconded it.

Same voting pattern

In the election of Deputy Mayor too, the voting pattern was the same. Mr. Manisankar's name was proposed by Sabu George and seconded by E.M. Sunil Kumar, while the name of T.K. Ashraf was proposed by A.B. Sabu and seconded by M. Premachandran.

In her speech after the swearing-in ceremony, Ms. Abraham extended all support to Mercy Williams. "No politics in the development of Kochi Corporation," she said.

Former mayor Dinesh Mani; member of the CPM State Secretariat S.Sarma and CPI District Secretary Mundakayam Sadasivan were also present on the occasion. DO Mini Antony and Corporation Secretary S. Sudarshanan were among the other State officials who helped the Collector in conducting the elections.

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