NOW that the festivities of our 52nd Independence celebrations are over, Guyanese will now have to focus their minds on Local Government Election (LGE) later this year.
It would be the second time after a 23-year hiatus that citizens will determine their local leaders via the ballot. The well documented absence of these elections under the PPP administration has no doubt dealt a crushing blow to local democracy, the fallout from which we are still experiencing.

It should also be noted that after a prolonged debate over Local Government reforms, in which the major political parties could not find common ground, the coalition parties vowed that, if elected, they would hold these long overdue elections.

True to their promise, they succeeded in ensuring that Guyanese got the opportunity to decide who their local representatives should be.

As one of the countries in the Anglophone Caribbean with a long and rich tradition of Local Governance, it is fitting that Guyana once again takes its place as a beacon of local democracy. Indeed, it was our much acclaimed village movement that pioneered Local Government in the larger Caribbean. To go to the polls and elect local representatives is a fitting tribute to our foreparents, who had the vision to transform former slave plantations into vibrant communities and spaces of freedom from servitude.

While the turnout at the March 2016 election was not as large as had been expected, that should not, in any way, sully the exercise. Generally, LGEs have not excited the same level of participation from the citizenry as General Elections, because citizens tend to attach less significance to the LGEs. This, of course, is an area that needs attention as we continue to build a democratic process and culture. This is a responsibility of not just the government and political parties, but also all civic and social organisations, including churches, trade unions and other NGOs. This matter goes to the heart of our Independence and the role of citizen participation.

Having said the above, we must salute those who turned out to cast their votes; they are an example to those who, for various reasons, did not go to the polls.
Salutations are also in order for the candidates who had offered themselves up to serve even as we expect heightened interest in this year’s poll. Unlike General Elections, LGE requires a larger pool of candidates. That many citizens answered the call is most refreshing. We wish to commend especially those younger candidates, and others, who entered the fray for the first time.

There is no better nursery for leadership than Local Government. It is in this arena that future leaders get the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the proverbial nuts and bolts of representative governance.

No doubt political parties, especially the major ones, would use the upcoming polls to test their strengths as we head into 2020 for general elections.
In the 2016 elections there were much criticisms about the level of voter education, with some observers concluding that this was largely responsible for the low voter turnout. While there may be some truth in that conclusion, this year presents another opportunity for both the Guyana Elections Commission, political parties and other stakeholders to make a concerted effort to reach voters.

The problem is that the voter education can have its desired effect only if the population is open to it. In that regard, perhaps the approach should be for there to be a more long-term education initiative, rather than one that revolves around the elections.
The 2016 polls were also violence-free. There was, moreover, the relative absence of race-baiting on the campaign trail. In our ethnically polarised society, that is a huge achievement which we hope will be the case this year as well. Whatever happens in the next elections, one thing is certain: citizens will be in a heightened state of anxiety as we head into 2020.