The reconstituted Local Government Task Force is currently in the process of completing the drafting of one of four pieces of local government legislation, which is expected to be presented to parliament in a single package when all the items are completed.
Co-Chairman of the Task Force Vincent Alexander told the Stabroek News yesterday that the committee was making some progress with the assistance of legal draftsmen from the Attorney General’s Chambers.
The first piece of legislation deals with the electoral system and is almost complete, and when it is drafted the Fiscal Transfer Bill, the Local Government Commission Bill, and general amendments to the Local Government Act would be dealt with.
Alexander said that at present there were no major stumbling blocks and the task force was working with the objective of meeting the timelines which the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) was working with for the holding of Municipal and Local Government Elections slated for next year.
The PPP/C and the PNCR, which are represented on the task force have already agreed on a 50/50 proportional representation/constituency split for the electoral system. With the new electoral system, each local government area will have to be subdivided into constituencies.
Two draft pieces of legislation which had circulated before, Alexander said, had been regarded only as working documents since they had not originated from the task force. These draft documents dealt with fiscal transfers and amendments to the Local Government Act, and Stabroek News learnt that they had had no input from the opposition members who consequently rejected them on the ground that the drafters had acted in breach of the task force mandate. The members had agreed that in future the task force would undertake the mandate of drafting the bills.
The last municipal and local government elections were held in 1994 and are constitutionally due every three years. Since then the elections have been postponed every year for the want of electoral reforms, and more recently also because of the failure to hold a new national voter registration exercise demanded by the joint parliamentary opposition. The government has since agreed to house-to-house registration.
Alexander, who had offered his resignation to PNCR Leader Robert Corbin as Co-chair of the task force, a post for which he was nominated by the party, continues to hold the office and work with the team since he has not received a response to his offer.
He had offered his resignation in a letter dated August 20, 2007 following his withdrawal from the party’s leadership elections at its last biennial congress in July, and the subsequent termination of the services of elected party functionaries who were supporters of Alexander for the party’s top leadership post.
Meanwhile, Presidential Advisor on Governance Gail Teixiera, acting as Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Cabinet Secretary in the absence of Dr Luncheon, told the media at the Office of the President on Thursday that the government was “very anxious that the task force will function well and effectively and their issues are brought back to the political parties and cabinet so we can move to parliament in a timely fashion.”
Alexander co-chairs the task force along with former minister in the Ministry of Local Government, Clinton Collymore. The other members of the task force are Basil Williams and Llewellyn John of the PNCR and Ganga Persaud and Navin Chandarpal from the PPP/C.
The task force was reconstituted in May and has agreed to continue its work in keeping with the terms of reference set by President Bharrat Jagdeo and Opposition Leader Robert Corbin.
