Georgetown: Contending that the “minor” legislative amendments are not impinging on the operations of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan said December 7 is likely to be the date for the country’s long overdue Local Government Elections (LGE).
“I am told by GECOM that despite everything, the December 7 date is not in jeopardy,” Bulkan recently said.
He noted that the early December period would be ideal for the staging of LGE as it will not interfere with Christmas celebrations.
GECOM on Friday explained that the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Administration was blocking its attempts to fully prepare for the Elections by not taking adequate steps to remove the legislative blockade in the way of the hosting of the Elections under a new and improved system.
Minister Bulkan said that these amendments should not severely affect GECOM.
“Those minor legislative amendments are not expected to impinge or impact the timetable that GECOM currently possess in relation to the holding of these elections… The minor legislative amendment is not the issue holding up elections,” he insisted.
Instead, Bulkan sought to blame the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) for the holdup.
“I’ve learnt that the Opposition raised a number of concerns in relation to several activities… There are a number of reservations being advanced by the Opposition… the Opposition seems to be playing a cat and mouse game to prove a point that we are misleading the public and that the date we desire is unrealistic,” the Minister speculated.
Minister Bulkan is holding out that the Government is currently at a standstill until GECOM further advises.
Government already budgeted $2 billion for the hosting of the LGE.
But GECOM is holding out that the Government knows what it has to do to enable GECOM to officially commence active steps to carry out its mandate as regards Local Government Elections.
GECOM’s Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield maintained that GECOM cannot proceed to prepare a Preliminary Lists of Voters for the conduct of Claims and Objections for the purpose of finalising the respective Registers of Voters that will be necessary to conduct LGEs in the 65 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) and the six municipalities in Guyana.
GECOM is also stating that existing legislation relative to the preparation of the Preliminary List of Voters requires that the Lists be prepared from the Official List of Electors that was used for the 1992 General and Regional Elections, explaining this legislation must be amended to clear the way for the Lists to be extracted from the up-to-date National Register of Registrants.
The Commission said too that the proposed (draft) amendment, among others, has already been prepared in one document which was discussed and fine-tuned between GECOM’s Legal Officer and the Chief Parliamentary Counsel of the Ministry of Legal Affairs.
Why LGE was not held since 1994
While in Opposition, APNU and AFC lambasted the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration for not holding LGE, claiming that they will host the LGE immediately after occupying office, casting blame upon the then Government for robbing citizens of their democratic right to elect the leaders for their Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) and town councils.
But then Attorney General Anil Nandlall had contended that this is not so and explained how the main Opposition actively participated in the postponement of those elections.
He had chronicled a series of events in his attempt to explain how such an imperative event has been put off time and time again.
The former Attorney General recalled that in 1997, the then Government of the day went to general elections and since Local Government and General Elections could not have been facilitated in the same year, the decision was made to hold General Elections with the PPP/C Presidential Candidate being the late Janet Jagan. That election was followed by massive social unrest, riots, violence, street protests, and arson, which resulted in a team from the Caribbean Community (Caricom) intervening. This resulted in the LGE being delayed thereafter.
Further, for every year for onward for that period, there were amendments to the law, postponing Local Government Election.
“The Constitutional Reform Commission assembled and it began its work; that Commission recommended several changes to the Constitution that affected governmental structure generally, but more significantly that affected local government at the time,” Nandlall had explained.
However, when that process was completed another general election was held in 2001 and again during that period LGE was being postponed consensually by all the political parties in the Parliament. Following the 2001 election was more violence and unrest, which led to the postponement of LGE once again.
At that time, the Constitution provided for the establishment of a Local Government Commission, it did not provide for the way that the Commission will function, the powers that the Commission will have, the way the Commission will staff itself, all of which were supposed to be the subject of ordinary legislation.
“So while the Constitution laid the foundation, ordinary law would have outlined the way the constitutionally enshrined Commissioner was to function,” Nandlall stated. Subsequently, a task force was assembled to work out the modalities and to come up with draft legislation.
Again, as this process was being carried out, an amendment was moved in the National Assembly repeatedly and on an annual basis to postpone Local Government Election; this went on until 2009/2010.
You must be logged in to post a comment.