VIDEO: Questions Continue To Linger Concerning Special Election In Aberdeen

ABERDEEN, Miss. (WCBI)- Aberdeen city leaders held their first meeting of the new year today, but they were one member short.

Cloyd Garth Jr. didn’t show.

It was last Wednesday when we first reported that the city is moving forward with a special election to replace Garth as the Ward 2 Alderman.

The decision comes after an attorney general’s ruling saying Garth cannot serve as an alderman while holding the Interim Superintendents job in the Hazlehurst School District.

However, Mayor Maurice Howard maintains that Garth is still the Ward 2 Alderman and that this isn’t a decision for the board to make.

“I think that’s still up in the air at the moment,” said Aberdeen Mayor Maurice Howard. “I think there are still some unverifiable things that are going on, nobody really knows the exact truth of what’s going on with that situation as of yet, and again as I said before I think it’s going to be a decision for the courts to handle and not myself nor board of alderman. We haven’t set a date for a new election or anything like that, so again we are just going to see what happens in the near future.”

Public notices are being distributed setting January 30th as the date of the special election to replace Alderman Garth.

So far, no one has qualified for the position.

The deadline to qualify is January 9th.