Natasha Navas is about to step into the shoes of ousted Chaguanas mayor Surujrattan Rambachan. Using the power to appoint and disappoint, councillors of the Chaguanas Borough Corporation yesterday gave Rambachan the boot. He had been appointed alderman and mayor in 2003.

As dethroned mayor Surujrattan Rambachan packed his bags yesterday to vacate the office he had occupied for the past six years, his employees wept outside his door. And although the results of the elections of mayor and aldermen shocked workers at the Chaguanas Borough Corporation, Rambachan said he was not surprised. "I am not shocked because I recognised what was happening about two weeks ago. Jack Warner has been saying that every attempt would be made to unseat the mayor," Rambachan said.

Rambachan, mayor since 2003, lost a secret-ballot vote to return as an alderman by a margin that suggests at least two UNC councillors did not vote for him. He will not be able to face a vote on Thursday in which councillors and aldermen will determine who among them will be the next mayor.

Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday is next in line to be dethroned. This was the warning delivered by deputy political leader of the UNC Jack Warner, yesterday, moments after Dr Surujrattan Rambachan was not returned as an alderman in Chaguanas Borough Corporation.