FIFTEEN years have passed since the last free and fair Local Government Elections were held in Guyana. Conditions of local government body in Guyana continue to worsen and the credibility gap of the opposition continues to widen as GECOM cannot get their acts together.

GECOM chairman Dr Steve Surujbally, in March said that local government elections-can be called by November 30 this year or even earlier. The postponement of these elections will prove a watershed in Guyana’s political life. It has brought the Guyanese people to a new stage in the struggle for genuine democracy at the grassroot level. The tactics of GECOM have proved correct in practice. Those who criticised GECOM for delaying the elections now admit that it was right.

The Guyanese people over the years have been brought to a new level of political consciousness. The people now realise that it is not possible to secure people’s power after 15 years at the grassroots level because of GECOM incompetence.

One of the greatest dangers confronting us today is a growing belief that the political system cannot find an answer to make the boundary changes, accomplished through the workings of the political machinery, virtually impossible. If that notion once comes to be generally believed, democracy at the grassroots level is finished, since there will be no elections by November 2009.

It is hoped that all parties presenting their views on the boundaries will be reasonably open-minded on those presented by others. In this way the people hope that the constitution which finally emerges will be as acceptable to all parties as it should be to the nation at large.

An essential part of this transformation is the extension of grassroot democracy by increasing opportunities for the participation of citizens in the management and decision-making processes of the state. Local government elections therefore recognises that the new society can be built only by active and continuing co-operation between the state and the people participating  through all legitimate popular institutions such as NDC’s and Municipalities, all of which are accordingly given constitutional status. By according recognition in the constitution and holding periodical elections is an integral part of the total democratic fabric.
MOHAMED KHAN
Former Deputy Mayor.