Amid opposition walkout and non-attendance
THE first of five Local Authorities (Elections) Amendment Bill 2009 was yesterday passed in the National Assembly amid a walkout and non-attendance from the opposition side of the House. Minister of Local Government Kellawan Lall put forth the second reading of the Local Authorities (Elections) Amendment Bill 2009 following the walkout of all eighteen of the People’s National Congress Reform Party Members of Parliament and the non-attendance of Alliance for Change MPs.

The Bill, which was sent to Special Select Committee after being presented and read for the first time on May 28, seeks to set the legal framework for the holding of the Local Government Elections under a reformed Local Government electoral system.

Lall, in his presentation, stressed that it is quite unfortunate, given the present climate in Guyana, that these elections could not be held this year.

“After eight years, we must recognise what is happening on the ground; as parliamentarians and legislators, we have to behave in a very responsible manner; we have put the Local Government system under pressure, severe pressure; as Minister responsible, I would say it is in crisis.

“There are reports of tremendous amount of problems in these sixty-five bodies, at the neighbourhood level and the six municipalities. They cannot work, we are putting pressure on them, we cannot stabilise the system without Local Government Elections, and there seem to be some people who are in positions that they can move this process along, who have been deliberately trying to stymie this process,” the Minister pointed out.

He stressed that the Guyana Elections Commission and other relevant organisations need to be given sufficient lead time to do some ground work, due to the restructuring of the method in which these elections are to be conducted, which is a very tedious and painstaking system.

Minister Lall also said that the fact that National Elections are due in two years needs to also be taken into account, as it would be an extremely difficult task for a country like Guyana, with limited resources, to hold such elections within a short space of time; so the Local Government Elections need to be held some distance away from the National Elections.

“That is an important point, because for us to hold them close together would entail a large amount of capital and resources, including human resources, and not only at the stage of GECOM but at the stage of the political parties,” the Minister added.

“This is not the end of the reform of the local government system; this system has been in place for decades and this is the first attempt to give some meat to the constitutional provisions for us to have a very vibrant local government system.

“It is the first attempt to deal with some of the more arcane operations of the local government system; and as we go along; I think we will need to reform other aspects of local government,” he observed.

He noted that the one area of contention between the government and opposition sides during the meetings of the special committee was that of the Minister of Local Government having the authority to set the date for when elections are to be held.

He asserted that the Bill provides for the Minister to name the date for the elections, adding that the opposition’s opposition to the clause in the Bill which supports this is there because of fear and suspicion, and is not grounded in anything real.

“They fear that the Minister may not call elections. How are we not going to call elections when all these years we have been agitating, we are fighting and bringing these pieces of legislation to Parliament? How after all these things we are not going to want to call elections?” Minister Lall questioned.

He pointed out that the opposition is contending that the naming of the date should be a function of the Elections Commission, stating that after the several amendments that have been made to the constitution since 1980, the new legislations dealing with GECOM, the crafters of these legislations never intended that GECOM should take on the responsibility of naming dates for elections.

“I think they deliberately left that responsibility to the executive for whatever reasons, and we cannot now, in a vicarious and underhanded way, through this piece of legislation, hand over to GECOM this important function, to name dates of elections.

He stated that the constitution and other legislations prescribe the time-frame within which the executive must hold these elections, adding that the executive does not have unlimited authority to call elections, as in other jurisdictions, anytime they want.

“We are firmly committed to having Local Government Elections, the next one under a reformed system; we made a commitment with Mr. Hoyte and we are going to stick with it, all these other things that have been coming up about bringing these things as a package … this side of the house, the Executive and the ruling party, have committed themselves to having the next round of Local Government Elections under a reformed system”.

On Wednesday President Jagdeo had expressed disappointment at the announcement by GECOM that preparations would not be completed for the holding of local government elections this year.

He had also expressed surprise that despite the amount of resources that have been pumped into GECOM, it is still not in a position to bring off the elections this year.

Meanwhile, Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran, yesterday deferred the second reading of the Administration of Justice Bill #2 to the next sitting, as well as the reading of the reading of the Low Carbon Development Strategy motion, which was moved by Prime Minster Samuel Hinds earlier this month.