With the outcome of the upcoming budget uncertain, the Donald Ramotar administration could be holding off on committing to local government elections until it is in a position to decide whether general elections would be necessary, former PPP stalwart Ralph Ramkarran says.
The former Speaker of the National Assembly also noted that low voter turnout with an expected negative impact on confidence of victory at national elections could also be a factor in committing to the holding of local government polls. The opposition and the diplomatic community as well as civil society organisations have been exerting pressure on the government to call local government elections which were last held in 1994.
Ramkarran, in his Sunday Stabroek column pointed out that the budget is soon to be presented in the National Assembly and said that this would be the occasion for further disagreements. “No one knows what the outcome of the debate on the estimates is going to be. One suspects therefore that the government wishes to keep its powder dry and not commit to local government elections until it is a position to decide whether or not general elections would be necessary,” he wrote.
Ramkarran noted that the Local Authorities Election (Amendment) Bill, which provides that local government elections be held by August, has not yet been assented to by the President but chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, Dr Steve Surujbally has announced that Gecom is ready to “go into election mode” as soon as the date for local government elections is fixed.
The former Speaker said that this ends speculation about Gecom’s readiness and challenges the government’s position on the holding of local government elections. “Minister (Clement) Rohee’s statement that Gecom is not ready is not tenable. Minister (Norman) Whittaker’s view that the people are not ready has been an age old excuse for the withholding of democracy and lacks credibility,” Ramkarran said.
He pointed out that the main opposition APNU has seized the opportunity which was opened up by Gecom’s announcement that it was waiting on the government to fix a date for the elections.
“The government has always expressed an anxiety for early local government elections. Shortly after his assumption of office, President Ramotar announced his intention to hold local government elections in 2012. These had been delayed since 1994 due to the unfortunate circumstances whereby during the PPP/C’s last term of office the government allowed negotiations to be unnecessarily prolonged with the opposition PNCR-IG for the legislation which was necessary after the recommendations of the Constitution Reform Commission. These started during the life of the 2001-06 government and continued interminably, for eight years, into the life of the next government. It ought to have terminated the negotiations after one or two years, and taken the issues for resolution to the National Assembly, which it eventually did after eight years,” Ramkarran asserted.
He recalled that the then opposition PNCR-IG also adopted an intransigent position by demanding that the reforms must be completed before elections are held. There was no reason why elections could not have been held under the old system while negotiations were going on, Ramkarran said.
“These two positions combined to deprive the Guyanese people of having local democracy. Having regard to President Ramotar’s earlier commitment, the PPP surely recognized that this deficit is one of the reasons why it performed so poorly at the last general elections. What in fact happened is that the lack of democracy allowed corruption to spiral, services to decline and bureaucratic inertia to spread. Frustration at the local level increased and this was partially reflected in the 2011 election results,” Ramkarran wrote. “With this experience it would have been expected that current procrastination by the government as regards local government elections would have been eschewed. But not so. The only explanation is that the issue of general elections is on the agenda of the PPP leadership,” the former Speaker posited.
“One may be tempted to believe that the government is examining the negative impact of a low turnout at the local government elections. After the traditional high turnout at the 1992 general elections, the local government elections in 1994 saw only a 30+ per cent turnout. It is anticipated that if local government elections are now held the turnout would be even lower. Such a result may cause its supporters to lose confidence in its ability to return victory at the general elections. This may well lead the government to hold its hand on the local government elections as it now appears to want to do,” Ramkarran wrote.
He also noted that the country is going through a particularly potent political battle in relation to the anti-money laundering Bill. “There are no signs that any compromise solutions are about to be negotiated so that Guyana is likely to be blacklisted shortly. The consequences of this alone may be so grave that elections would be necessary,” he said. Ramkarran also referred to the upcoming budget and the uncertainness of its outcome.
“It is not known whether this analysis is accurate but in the absence of any definite information it is a reasonable proposition to explain the reluctance of the PPP to commit to local government elections at this moment even though the leadership is aware of its importance and necessity. It is aware that the absence of local government elections is resulting in progress not being adequately made which is likely to harm its political prospects. But it is between a rock and a hard place. It has no choice but to keep its options open at this time,” he said.
