GENERAL Secretary of the ruling PPP, Clement Rohee, has stressed government’s commitment to hosting local government elections.
However, at a press conference held at the PPP’s Freedom House headquarters on Monday, he made it clear that the hosting of these elections is not only dependent on the readiness of the political parties that will participate.

Rohee said, “The Opposition says ‘we are ready’ and they want local government elections by August 1, 2014, latest, but this is not about the readiness of the Opposition only.
“The timing of the holding of the local government elections is a function, inter alia, of the readiness of GECOM (Guyana Elections Commission) to execute the duties and responsibilities relative to fair and efficient preparation and conduct of these elections; the readiness of other political parties, groups and individuals; people’s awareness, education and readiness to be part of this process.”
The general secretary questioned whether or not the Opposition has engaged GECOM on its state of readiness.
“We of the PPP have been engaging our members and we are best placed to assert that we cannot support the Opposition’s demand that these elections be held by August 1, 2014,” he stressed.
Rohee added that the Opposition’s “sudden sense of urgency presupposes and presumes” the PPP and or the government is in total control of all mechanisms and all the players responsible for ensuring local government elections.
“In so doing ,the Opposition seeks also to usurp the executive authority reposed in the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development and clearly set out under Section 35A of the Local Authority Elections Act, which provides that the minister must determine and announce by way of Order a date for the holding of these elections,” the general secretary said.
He made it clear that the ruling party, as it continuously does, extends a hand of cooperation to the Opposition to work together to ensure adequate preparation for local government elections.
“We posit that such an approach would ensure satisfactory and acceptable results welcomed by all Guyana,” Rohee said.
TRACK RECORD
The general secretary said, “We reject absolutely and forthrightly any attempt to question the genuineness and the determination of the PPP to hold local government elections.”
He pointed to the party’s track record in the historic struggle for democracy.
Rohee said, “Guyanese who have been following the history of the struggles for democracy in this country need not be reminded that the PPP has always been in the forefront of every form of democratic struggle in our country to ensure that Guyanese of all races, creed and class enjoy universally recognised basic human rights.
“…it is the PPP that agreed to local government reform and set about[it] with urgency, put the required mechanism in place to advance the reform process; while the Opposition PNC did all it could to stagnate the process.
“Recall the frequent absence and lateness of its members to meetings of the Task Force, and later, to meetings of the Parliamentary Select Committee set up to examine the Reform Bills and move the process forward. Recall also their ramblings and irrelevant comments and other negative contributions that did nothing to advance the work of the Task Force or the committee.
“Recall the frequent public exhortations of PNC leaders past and present that the PNC would not participate in local government elections until His Excellency assents to all four Local Government Bills; a position they maintain till today.
“And this notwithstanding the fact that the mandatory Bills that addressed and satisfied the requirements ‘for the election of members of local democratic organs’ as set out in our Constitution had already been met in the Fiscal Transfers Act, the Local Government Commission Act and the Local Authorities Elections Act.
“Instead, the Opposition continues to insist on legislative changes, notably to the Local Government Amendments Act that are ultra vires to the Constitution of Guyana, the supreme law of the land.”
The general secretary maintained that the People’s Progressive Party has always been committed in words and actions to the holding of elections, whether at the level of local government or general and regional elections in Guyana.
Written By Vanessa Narine