TRUE to form, the agents of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) continue to demonstrate the highest degree of flippancy, this time coming out against the announcement of the holding of local government elections.

The statements emanating from their camp are mixed, in some cases causing them to counteract their very colleagues as in the case of Alliance For Change Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan, and its Chairperson Cathy Hughes.
Objectively, it must be asked why the APNU+AFC is so afraid of the holding of local government elections which it has created much noise about the delays in the holding of the polls which have followed legal processes and were entirely outside of the control of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government.

To answer that question, one can look to the performance of the APNU and the AFC at the previous local government polls since 2016 which have consistently been in favour of the PPP/C. Additionally, even in instances where the APNU held majority in some local democratic organs, like Georgetown, these organs have largely neglected their duties to citizens.

President, Dr Irfaan Ali, following the announcement of LGE, called “on all Guyanese to work in renewing efforts to building the local governance system, building and strengthening our communities, especially our townships.”

The President also recognised that “for long, we have seen what mismanagement could do in townships, in some areas.”
As in the case of the Georgetown City Council, citizens of Guyana are left now with a series of rusting parking meters spread across the capital; remnants of terrible decision-making at the local level by the APNU-dominated council which still threatens to leave Guyana with a large legal bill since the contract for the parking meters was brought to an end under the APNU+AFC government.

As it relates to the development of local government, central government is considering the devolution of power to the local democratic organs, and provide those bodies with possibly larger budgets, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo noted during an exclusive interview on Friday.

Even with increased financing to local government bodies, it would still be on central government to engage in capacity-building at the local government level, especially as it relates to large amounts of funding and the management and accounting of those funds.

The PPP/C government has committed repeatedly to the advancement of local democracy. While the APNU+AFC found it convenient to their agenda to demand local government elections, it is both unsurprising and discouraging that they have now turned up their nose against the holding of local polls because of narrow political agendas. Surely, citizens will use these facts to make their decision in 2023.