WHAT the new laws on Local Government Election reform will be is dependent upon the expressed will of the people. In this way, we hope that the reforms which finally emerge will be as acceptable to all parties as it should be to the nation at large. But since the outcome is not as yet known, all that we can hope for at this stage is for people’s input into the process in the shape of the draft.
The most logical way of beginning any discussion of the reform is to start with the constitution which we have and to ask what is wrong with it and what are the remedies proposed. The existing is what is known as the Westminister export type of constitution. In itself such a constitution is neither good nor bad. Whether it is good or bad depends upon its suitability for the nation which imports it. To resolve this issue of Local Government Election reform it is necessary for all parties represented in the Assembly to have an input.
The imbalances within the Local Government system impose constraints, frictions and inhibitions which render it an unacceptable one for developing nations which have more to do and less time within which to do it than developed states if they are to achieve anything like a just society in this century or the one to come. Many of the grosser defects of local government can be corrected when the people vote at periodical local government elections but, for the rest, they seem to look on from the outside. They may criticise the council’s action, but they do so as spectators. They do not do so through any acknowledged right as tax payers. Hence, their contributions are not as constructive as they might be.
In effect, there is much formal democracy, but little practical democracy. In Guyana we have been trying for the past eight years to change this system with a view to creating a fresh climate in which the people and their mass organisations can see themselves as a legitimate part of the day to day decision making processes of the local government systems in their communities. But we need to do more. We need to round off this reform by institutionalising its foundations in the constitution itself and to continue to build from there on outwards and upwards.