Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon on Thursday told reporters that the likelihood of local government polls this year is now dim.
His comments were based on communication between the Office of the President and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
GECOM however did not want to respond to Luncheon’s comments on Thursday. It has scheduled a press conference for Tuesday.
According to Luncheon, the commission has said that there were unplanned delays in the production of identification cards and the fact that the provisions in the Local Authority Amendment Act requires significant efforts and time to be concluded.
He further pointed out that there were pieces of legislation still being actively considered by a parliamentary sub-committee which will pronounce on local government reform and would also support and dictate the way elections are held.
The issue of the loss of confidence, Luncheon said, would also come to the fore since many elements have already been put in place for the preparation of the process, including financial considerations.
In terms of government’s reaction to GECOM’s assertions, Luncheon said a comprehensive position would be announced publicly as they await an announcement from the commission. He posited too that the commission would be forced to respond to criticisms from those who have long anticipated the correction of governance issues within the current local government setting.
Asked what he felt would be a suitable time frame for the holding of the elections, Luncheon did not elaborate but said he felt that the commission may be constrained to offer a new date given the fact that they have failed ‘somber undertakings’ and raised false expectations.
Mid-2010
Mid-2010 is the latest time by which local government elections could be held failing which it would have to be put off until after the next general elections scheduled to be held by the third quarter in 2011.
This is in keeping with a policy that the commission needs at least 12 months to prepare for those elections.
Meanwhile Luncheon told reporters that the commission must take the opportunity to address the Guyanese people on this matter. Government had taken some time to give a final decision for the provision of financial resources for the production of ID cards. Asked whether he felt that this may have helped to set back the commission’s work thus influencing a reneging on the date for the elections, Luncheon was doubtful.
He believes that the procurement and the plans which were made in the context of the logistics and the supply of material and production of the cards were the areas of setbacks. However the answers, he said would be revealed by GECOM.
Reactions
Opposition Leader Robert Corbin yesterday said there was enough time for all the preconditions for the holding of local government elections to be met if only the government was serious enough about it.
He restated that his party was committed to doing its best to ensure that the reforms were completed and elections held within the original time frame.
“The elections commission has stated that they cannot achieve certain commitments. We believe this was inevitable”, he said.
Accusing the body of “pussyfooting“ on many issues, Corbin said stakeholders were yet to hear about its production of the National Register of Registrants (NRR). “ All this time we see no reason which even if they are delayed in certain matters, the NRR could not have been published because all of this is valuable time being utilized”, he said.
He pointed out that GECOM could have used the time instead to remove all other areas of controversy, ”instead we hear about a lot of meetings while the electorate is still denied the opportunity to scrutinize the results of the registration exercise.”
Alliance For Change Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan told Stabroek News that the announcement came as no surprise to his party.
According to him they had information that the elections would have only been held if the old list could have been used, something which the opposition would have objected to.
Earlier this week Stabroek News reported that a delay in the start of the national identification (ID) card production has put plans to run off the belated local government elections in doubt.
The report pointed out too that the contract with De La Rue, the commercial security printer and papermaker, to produce identity cards was signed last month and the production of cards is not expected to begin until mid-October, just over a month before the scheduled deadline for the polls.
GECOM was working towards a November 30, 2009 deadline for running off the local government elections, which have been due since 1997.
President Bharrat Jagdeo has been adamant that local government polls need to be held this year and the government abandoned the Joint Task Force on Local Government Reform earlier this year in favour of a parliamentary review of legislation crucial to revamping the local government system.