-laments slow pace of work by Task Force
HEAD of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon has once again assured that the government is committed to the holding of local government elections this year.

He gave this assurance when replying to questions from members of the media at his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing yesterday at the Office of the President, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown.

Co-Chair of the Local Government Task Force, former Minister Clinton Collymore announced that with effect from last Tuesday, he has ‘terminated’ meetings of the Task Force.

In a statement issued through the government Information Agency (GINA), Collymore strongly rebuked Mr. Robert Corbin, the Leader of the Opposition and People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R), who had earlier claimed that Collymore was instructed to terminate the consultations on local government reform and made it clear that no one instructed him to terminate the meeting.

Collymore said the Task Force met last Tuesday evening but following ‘major and fundamental disagreements’ during the meeting between members of the governing People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) and the opposition PNC/R, he decided to terminate the meeting on his own volition.

Collymore also noted that according to the agreement, no meeting of the Task Force could be held without a properly constituted quorum which includes both Co-chairmen and two other members, at least one from each side.

The Cabinet Secretary at the press conference reiterated, “We are at ‘one’ where this is concern. There will be Local Government Elections in 2009.”

“What GECOM has done and what GECOM has achieved are the very important steps that have convinced us that this thing is doable,” the Cabinet Secretary pointed out.

He outlined the completion of the house-to-house registration activity and the move to have National Identification (ID) cards produced on the basis of the registration data from this new National Register of Registrants and to have those cards distributed.

“The move also to acquire the full trappings of personnel to move seamlessly from ID card production and ID card distribution into claims and objections period which is an event immediately prior to the promulgation of the list,” he stated.

“I think with those interventions by GECOM and our commitment, it makes it almost a done thing,” Dr. Luncheon reassured.

“A foregone conclusion that the legislative basis for going to elections. The legislative basis would be given the utmost attention by the administration. It will seem to me foolhardy for us to support both financially and otherwise these interventions and have our commitment falter because the legislation is not in place,” he explained.

“…so the commitment of the administration is reinforced by what is happening in parallel at GECOM and that commitment would be realised in terms of having the Local Government Elections, by us moving to have parliamentary consideration of those pieces of legislation that create the new electoral system for Local Government Elections and those for which we have made commitments,” he reiterated

Commenting on the statement by Collymore, he stated, “I think if the Task Force continued in its ‘slow way’ of doing things, we definitely would not have Local Government Elections probably till about 2020 because this Task Force has been in existence for over eight years.”

“Indeed because the legislation has become such an imperative that were the Task Force to continue dealing with the Task Force mandate the same way as they would deal with the legislation, chances are we would not have the legislation in place,” he observed.

“It is parliament that ultimately would have to pronounce on the legislation,” the Cabinet Secretary pointed out.

Noting that while there is merit in having the governing party and the opposition in the Task Force, he pointed out, “Indeed what is transparent is the voyage to parliament.”

“The earlier it gets there, the more time could be given to its consideration and still allow us to be reasonably assured that you are going to have Local Government Elections in 2009,” he stressed.

“All of the local government legislation that is needed to provide the compliance with constitutional provisions for the local government elections will go to Parliament but there would be others,” he stated.

One piece of legislation, he noted is the Election Amendment Bill that is going to be tabled in parliament and explained, “Whilst it in itself is not a requirement for holding Local Government Elections, it does indeed remove some of the confusion and controversies about the way in which scrutineers are to be treated since the role of scrutineers will be captured in the law now in terms of the verification of registration data.”

The task force, comprising members of the PPP/C and the PNC/R was established in 2001 to deal with the affairs of the Local Government Reform process and came out of the dialogue between President Bharrat Jagdeo and the Leader of the Opposition, the late Desmond Hoyte.

Among the terms of reference of the Task Force are: to ensure the conclusion of the constitutional reform process and give effect to the new constitutional provisions regarding local democracy; to monitor and guide the drafting, passing and implementation of legislation to give greater autonomy to local government bodies, including the establishment of the local government commission, and the formulation and implementation of objective criteria for the purpose of the allocation of resources by local democratic organs

It is hoped that the Local Government polls will be held before November 30 of this year.