The main opposition APNU yesterday held picketing exercises in the country’s six municipalities to demand the holding of local government elections to allow citizens to manage their own communities.
Protests were held in Georgetown, New Amster-dam, Rose Hall, Corriver-ton, Linden, and Anna Regina after APNU mobilised supporters in keeping with a recent announcement by coalition leader David Granger of a campaign of peaceful demonstrations.
Granger led the picketing exercise conducted outside of the Office of the President in the city and according to APNU he said the coalition would continue its campaign of protests until a date is announced for the holding of the elections, which were last run off in 1994.
The PPP/C administration has faced a renewed push this year for the holding of the elections, due every three years. In light of government’s unwillingness to even commit to a date, Granger last week announced “a campaign of lawful, orderly, peaceful public protests–including picketing, rallies and vigils–to raise public awareness of the threat to our collective rights.”
Berbice
In New Amsterdam, the office of the Regional Democratic Council of Region Six was the target of the peaceful picketing exercise. Some two dozen members and supporters of APNU armed themselves with placards and picketed the office in protest over the current government’s refusal to hold local government elections. The protestors spent over an hour in the scorching midday sun demanding that the ruling PPP/C government “end its dictatorship and allow the hosting of the elections which is the democratic right of all Guyanese.”
Elaborating on the position taken by APNU, the coalition’s Berbice representative Jevaughn Stephen said local government
elections mean local democracy and thus “the restoration of power to the people.”
“APNU is calling on the government to hold local government elections now!” declared Stephen. “The country has 65 NDCs and six municipalities; 71 areas that need elections. We need new councillors. A drive across the country would reveal that all the NDCs are under-funded. We have councillors working who were elected 20 years ago, some have vacated their seats so nobody is there now,” he noted.
Stephen criticised the government’s drive to install Interim Manage-ment Committees (IMCs) across the country through its Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. Dismissing the idea of local government being run by IMCs, he said what the country needs is “persons within the area to have that power; to be elected to represent their particular community.”
Samuel Monah, a pensioner who joined in the picketing exercise, told Stabroek News that the present government and president “took an oath that they would respect the constitution. But from 1992 to now, total disrespect has been shown to the constitution.” Monah went on to state that “they have deferred local government elections several times past and it’s time for a restoration of that privilege so that the people can manage their own resources in their own environment.”
Monah said further that because of the government’s continued negligence as it regards the hosting of the elections, he would continue to support APNU, which has decided to voice its disapproval.
Other picketers questioned the logic behind denying the country’s populace the elections. One woman, Esther Stephen, expressed her optimism that the government will “soon see reason” and hold the polls by January 2015. Raising high her placard, which read “Time for a good life for all Guyanese,” Stephen said she was sending a message to the government of this country. “We must have the right in our hands; we have the right as voters in this country and so we want to have our democratic right to vote for our people to run the 71 NDCs/ Municipalities in Guyana,” she said. The grandmother added that she was withstanding the “hot sun” because “it is for our children and our grandchildren and for a better future in Guyana.”
The protestors plan to have a continued presence in and around New Amsterdam and have indicated their intention to continue with their picketing exercises and possibly taking it to other parts of the region until the “leaders of the country let good sense prevail and host local government elections.”
At Rose Hall, Winston Hope told reporters that the people of Guyana were tired of imposition of councilors and IMCs. “We need elected officials to look into these prevailing issues,” he said, before adding that it is time for local government elections as they have been postponed for too long.
Linden
At Linden, in Region Ten, former PNC Member of Parliament Sandra Adams and current APNU Member of Parliament for the region Renis Morian led about a dozen protestors in front of the Linden Town council.
“We are picketing not the Mayor and Town Council but we’re sending a message to the PPP/C that local government elections have been due for over twenty years,” Adams told Stabroek News around noon yesterday.
She became a member of the Town Council when local government elections were last held in 1994.
“It’s now due twenty years…. and because of this we are calling on the government—we’re joining with the leader, Mr David Granger to call on the government—for local government elections now,” she said.
“We need proper leadership in our town,” Adams insisted. “Our town is not having the proper leadership it should have.”
She accused Minister of Local Government Norman Whittaker and the others from the government of taking Linden and Kwakwani for granted and making excuses for not delivering while focusing their attention on other places. “So, we need local government elections that would give us a body that is properly elected to run this town. That’s what we’re calling on them for,” she added.
One person said the IMC of the Linden Town Council should be a temporary body but it has been in place for over 11 years now. “Even an elected body don’t last eleven years,” the protestor said. “So, this is definitely contrary to the rules and the laws. We need to get things straightened out. We need to get our local government elections. We want to get things in order where we can control the garbage, control the rates and taxes and all the other things pertaining to the Linden local authority.”
The protest did, however, call to attention a continued divide between the PNCR—the main constituent of APNU—and Regional Chairman and party member Sharma Solomon. Solomon, who observed the demonstration as he walked back to his office from attending a National Trust function at the Egbert Benjamin Interpretation Centre, told Stabroek News: “Look at the small number of people they have protesting. You think if we call a demonstration, we would get so few people?”
One of the protestors called Solomon, chatted with him briefly and invited him to hold a placard but he refused to take the placard. He immediately told Stabroek News that he had not been invited to the demonstration, that he knew nothing about it and that he would not participate in any activity he had not been previously informed about.
Meanwhile, Morian said that President Donald Ramotar has been claiming that Granger is flip-flopping as to whether he wants local government elections or local government elections.
“The leader of our (political) party is not dilly dallying as the President would want to have the media state,” Morian insisted. “It’s a political spin. Right now, he held a meeting in New York. He’s saying the leader dilly dallying but it’s a process. We have two elections. If one is due for 20 years and the government dilly dallying, what APNU wants is power come back in the hands of people. Local government empowers local people to do things how they want based on their needs. We’re also going to parliament to support that no confidence motion that seeks for national elections. So, we’re in sync with what the people require in Guyana,” he explained.
Another protestor said: “They (the government) could do the no confidence motion when Parliament continues and if it is carried, they have three months which will run into next year. So, we won’t have local government election and general election in the same year, one would be in 2014. And we deserve local government elections now.”
Some of the placards read: “Save our NDC and our M&TC;” “No to the PPP/C Government deception;” “Local government elections now;” “Yes, local government elections now. No to PPP/C;” and “Local government, local democracy.”
Adams said a group of protestors were expected to leave for Kwakwani later yesterday to participate in a candlelight vigil in that community in support of Granger’s ultimatum to the PPP/C administration.
