THE Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) said the $1.2B allocated for Local Government is insufficient and soon it will be engaging the Ministry of Finance to boost this figure.
Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan on Thursday announced that Local Government Elections will be held on November 12 this year. In a media release on Friday  GECOM said it has noted several reports in the press that the commission was allocated $2.9 billion dollars for the conduct of Local Government Elections. “Please be advised that GECOM‘s entire budget for 2018 is 2.9 billion dollars of which the sum for the holding of Local Government Elections is included,” GECOM stated.

The electoral body noted that $160M was allocated for capital works and items and $1.6 billion for the normal operations of the Commission. “As such, the remaining sum of 1.2 billion was allotted for the conduct of Local Government Elections in November 2018.”
The elections body said in 2016, $1.5 billion was expended for Local Government Elections. “This means that the amount currently allocated is believed to be insufficient and GECOM will be engaging the Ministry of Finance to discuss supplemental provisions. Now that the date for Local Government Elections has been announced as 12th November, 2018, GECOM will be moving ahead with the full implementation of all the required activities in keeping with the statutory timelines as enshrined in the Laws of Guyana.”

Bulkan in referring to the $2.9B has said that it represents a huge investment. On Thursday he told a forum at the National Toshaos Conference that “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.
The holding of LGE constitutes he said, ‘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.