SOME $783 million has been approved for the holding of Local Government Elections (LGEs), as part of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM)’s 2022 budgetary allocation.
The constitutional body’s $4.1 billion allocation was scrutinised in the National Assembly during consideration of the budgetary estimates on Monday.

This instrumental allocation comes just one week after Local Government and Regional Development Minister, Nigel Dharamlall, announced the intention to hold the elections this year.

During his budget debate presentation on Friday, he told the National Assembly that his government strongly supports the holding of the LGEs.
“We believe in democracy, we believe in people’s choices, we believe that for our country to continue to evolve for development to come flowingly to our people, that we must have Local Government Elections. We are going to have Local Government Elections this year. We have budgeted billions of dollars for LGEs and are going to have LGEs this year,” Dharamlall announced.

He further noted that “We have budgeted billions for GECOM, in excess of $4.1 billion and LGE is on the card for the government during the course of this year.”

According to Dharamlall, there has been efforts by some of the APNU+AFC GECOM Commissioners to stymie holding of the elections, which will see councillors being elected for the 80 local democratic organs (LDOs), which includes the 70 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils and 10 municipalities, inclusive of Georgetown.

The government has repeatedly indicated that it is ready to hold the elections but is awaiting the guidance of GECOM. Notwithstanding this, the opposition continues to press the issue.

Though the Local Government Ministry is responsible for announcing the date for the LGEs, this can only be done after consultations with GECOM, which decides its readiness and has responsibility for holding the elections.

The elections were due in 2021, and some $1.1 billion had been allocated in the 2021 national budget for it. However, there were questions surrounding the credibility of several employees, who were implicated in the attempts to rig the 2020 elections. Several were eventually fired.

Last December, after months without a Chief Elections Officer, Vishnu Persaud was hired to fill the post. Several other senior posts, however, are still vacant.

Minister Dharamlall, during his budget presentation, noted that the holding of LGEs is just one of many ways that this year’s budget caters for the population at the community level.

“Every village in this country will have interventions from Budget 2022. We have a lot of work to do in the local government and regional development sector,” said the minister.

The ministry has been allocated $71 billion in the national budget this year, with $714 million going towards subventions for the LDOs.