– Bulkan says date was intentionally set to not clash with 2019 budget presentation

MINISTER of Communities, Ronald Bulkan on Wednesday announced that Local Government Elections (LGE) will be held on November 12.

“I have sent an order which is expected to be gazetted; when the elections are held in November it will mark the first time in our post-independent history that successive LGE is held as legally due,” said the minister in an invited comment on the sideline of the National Toshao Council (NTC) conference at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre on Thursday.
The holding of LGE constitutes ‘irrefutable’ evidence of the commitment and sincerity of the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC)’s intention to ensure that democratic governance obtains. He said: “There is not merely respect, but reverence for provisions in the constitution. More importantly our commitment to rebuilding the damaged and broken system of local government we inherited is something we will resolutely pursue.”

The National Assembly recently passed a bill which harmonises the period for elections for Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) and municipalities. It was stipulated that the LGE would be held between November 1 and December 7. Minister Bulkan said the early part of November was chosen because Government did not want the elections to clash with the reading of the 2019 National Budget which is anticipated to be before the end of November.

In the 2018 National Budget, an allocation to facilitate the holding of the elections was made to the tune of $2.9B, which Bulkan described as a “huge investment”.
This he said represents an unequivocal commitment and determination by this administration to ensure that there is democratic governance. The elections this year will see eight new NDCs being formed as well as a new town. Reports are that Mahdia in Region Eight (Potaro/Siparuni) is earmarked to become a town.

At the March 16, 2016 LGE, approximately 507,633 persons were registered to vote for representatives of three political parties, 17 voluntary groups and 63 individual candidates in a mixed system of Proportional Representation and First Past the Post.

In June this year at the launching of a public awareness campaign on the lawns of Parliament Buildings , Bulkan noted that that the government views local government organs as a critical partner in national development, and that integral to the approach is a better resourced and organised local government system; one that is effective in the discharge of its functions.

Minister Bulkan had said that the awareness campaign is aimed at bringing more information to the populace to ensure more participation in the LGE later this year. He had expressed hope that participation will be greater than the 43 per cent which obtained at the last LGE in March 2016.

LGE, regardless of any challenges, will not be postponed Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), retired judge James Patterson had said in a report from the Guyana Chronicle. “It looks as if but I cannot guarantee that we are going to be undisturbed, unless there are troublemakers,” said Patterson in an invited comment. He believes that his staff understands the seriousness of the task ahead and intends to take it very seriously.
GECOM has not encountered any challenges so far pertaining to the LGE, but there was a discovery of a fake Identification Card (ID) which stirred some concerns for the elections body, he said.