Opposition leader Robert Corbin has raised concerns with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) about ongoing preparation for local government polls without the implementation of agreed reforms.
Corbin wrote to GECOM Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally on Monday, urging him to ensure that local government elections are not held without legislative reforms that are required under the constitution. He advised Surujbally to “take whatever action you deem appropriate” to ensure that the constitutional requirements for a fully reformed local government system are met, prior to the holding of polls. “We have discussed this matter and shared our views with all parliamentary political parties, including the PPP and with the President of Guyana [Bharrat Jagdeo],” Corbin wrote. “We therefore urge you to take whatever action you deem necessary to facilitate the compliance with the requirements of the constitution and the agreements made by all the political parties and to ensure a common position is arrived at for the way forward,” he added.
GECOM spokesman Vishnu Persaud yesterday confirmed that the letter had been received and that its contents were being studied.
Local Government Minister Kellawan Lall, when contacted by Stabroek News, declined to comment on Corbin’s letter. Lall is also the Chairperson of the parliamentary select committee that is responsible for reviewing a suite of reform legislation tabled in the National Assembly last year. He did say that the work on the reforms is not completed as yet. “We are hoping to finish as early as possible,” he explained. The proposed legislation before the committee is the Fiscal Transfers Bill, the Local Government (Amendment) Bill and the Municipal and District Councils (Amendment) Bill. Two other bills, the Local Authorities (Elections) (Amendment) and the Local Government Commission Bill were passed without opposition support. However, both the PNCR and AFC have withheld their participation from the select committee, following a disagreement with the ruling party about the order in which the bills would be examined.
At his meeting with Corbin last week, the PNCR said yesterday, President Jagdeo undertook to have the concerns about the reforms discussed at the level of the PPP’s Central Committee.
A PPP official told Stabroek News yesterday that the ruling party’s actions in relation to local government have at all times been motivated by the need to ensure the elections are held as early as possible, given the more than decade-long impasse. The official added that the party has been discussing the issue and wants to avoid controversy. “We think the country must move beyond elections that have any kind of controversy,” the official explained.
Corbin, in the letter to Surujbally, emphasised that the reforms are required by the revised constitution, which specifically requires Parliament to provide the electoral system as well as the criteria for fiscal transfers and revenue earning as well as the establishment of the commission, among other things. The new electoral system is as a result just one part of the requirements of local government reform, Corbin pointed out. He added that all the political parties, including the PPP/C, agreed that the completion of reform was a natural prerequisite to the holding of the local government elections.
He argued that it is for this reason that the elections have been continually postponed since 1997. Further, he also noted that when the agreement for the new house-to-house registration was signed by all the political parties and GECOM in 2007, the “clear understanding of all” was that the reforms were to be completed and implemented.
Last year, representatives of the US, the UK, Canada and the EU Delegation, the major international donors, urged an “integrated” approach to local government reforms.
In a joint letter to Lall, the donors argued that it was “important” that the bills “proceed together” through the process of parliamentary debate, passage and implementation. They also recommended that ways to curb ministerial discretion over local authorities be explored.
The letter to Surujbally followed the meeting last Monday between President Jagdeo and Corbin on local government. Subsequently, Corbin met the representatives of AFC and GAP-ROAR to convey the PNCR’s position, before meeting with other stakeholders. Sub-sequently, he publicly accused the PPP/C administration of seeking to maintain the old local government system while trying to fool the public with the implementation of a reformed electoral system. He said the government is undermining the local government system by mishandling the bills referred to the select committee. The AFC, meanwhile, has stated that its participation in the elections would be dependent on the reforms.
The PNCR made Corbin’s letter to Surujbally public yesterday, while explaining that it hoped it would “stimulate the appropriate responses” for the way forward. “The position of the PNCR, however, that local government elections should not be held before implementation of local government reforms has been repeatedly stated over the last four years,” the party said, while adding that it is fully mobilised and ready to participate in properly run and constitutionally held polls.
On Saturday, AFC leader Raphael Trotman said his party’s participation in the polls would be tied to the reforms. In this regard, Trotman said the party “strongly believes” that the legislative requirements can be put in place by July 31, 2010. He added that the AFC “will participate when these requirements are in place,” while in the interim its activists would continue to work in the field in preparation for the elections. “We demand a reformed election not a deformed election. If the legislative reforms are in place tomorrow, the AFC will be ready to participate,” he added.
The opposition withdrawal from the work of the select committee fine-tuning the local government reform legislation was based on their claim that the government has refused to make concessions to give life to reforms. Ironing out the reforms had previously been the mandate of the Joint Task Force on Local Government Reform, which had been working for eight years before it was abandoned in favour of the parliamentary select committee review.
PPP General Secretary Donald Ramotar, who is a member of the committee, has in the past questioned the opposition’s position. He said the committee is completing its work without the participation of the opposition and explained that there had already been significant input from the opposition at the level of the Local Government Task Force. “We are faithful to the agreements that have already been reached at the level of the Task Force that was set up and I don’t think the opposition could really justify not participating,” he explained in an interview at the end of last year. “We have not put any impediment in their way to prevent them from participating in the select committee.”
Ramotar has been critical of the opposition for resisting the holding of local government polls immediately after the 2006 general elections, saying that the parties were then emphasising the need for a new national house-to-house to registration, rather than the reforms of the system that have become their recent focus. “We wanted to have local government elections a long time ago,” he also said, while noting that there is need for a renewal of local democracy on the ground.
