The call by the parliamentary opposition parties for government to table all outstanding local government reform legislation prior to the holding of the polls is under consideration, according to Prime Minister Samuel Hinds.
Stabroek News yesterday sought a comment from Hinds and was told that he acknowledged receipt of the letter and said it was under consideration.
The PNCR-1G and the Guyana Action Party/Rise Organise and Rebuild-Guyana Movement (GAP-ROAR) wrote Hinds, who is the leader of Government Business in the National Assembly, expressing concern about attempts to scuttle the reform process and also calling on the government to table all the bills that were previously the subject of discussions by the Local Government Reform Task Force. “We have stated publicly that the issues remaining to be resolved, in the [draft legislation], can be expeditiously resolved, in time for the holding of Local Government Elections, before the end of 2009, if there is political will and good faith, on the part of the government, to do so,” they said in the letter, dated June 1, 2009, and copied to Speaker of the House Ralph Ramkarran and Clerk of the Assembly Sherlock Isaacs.
The other parliamentary opposition party, the AFC, was not a signatory but MP David Patterson yesterday said its position is in line with the PNCR-1G and GAP/ ROAR. He explained that the opposition parties could not reach consensus on the way forward, which is why the AFC was not a signatory to the letter.
According to Patterson, all local government reforms have to be done at the same time. He told Stabroek News the AFC would not support “piecemeal” reform by the government but rather the entire collection of bills that were under consideration by the Task Force: the Local Authorities (Elections) (Amendment) Bill 2009, the Fiscal Transfers Bill 2009, the Local Government Commis-sion Bill 2007 and the Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2005. While only the Local Authorities (Elections) (Amendment) Bill 2009 was tabled, Patterson said it is only a “cog in the wheel” of the local government reform process, since all the proposed legislation does is free up the mechanism for the holding of the polls.
In addition to the legislation, the PNCR-1G and GAP/ROAR also emphasised the need to ensure the electorate is fully informed of the new system it would be voting under as well as the need for agreement on the new Constituency Boundaries which would have to be drawn under the direction of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). In both instances, they said there was only silence by the government.
