The APNU+AFC government would ideally like to have the long-awaited local government elections held by the end of this year, Minister of Governance Raphael Trotman said, and the administration is working assiduously to have a date named shortly.
During his address to the National Assembly on June 26, Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan had revealed government’s intention of holding the polls in November.
Questioned about the holding of the elections, for which both political parties now making up the coalition government had called for repeatedly while in opposition, Trotman said government would like to have local government elections as soon as possible, preferably by December 31.
He indicated that General Secretary of the PPP Clement Rohee and some elements of the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) continue to say that Gecom needs more time, which he finds strange as he would have thought Gecom would want to discharge its responsibilities quickly having just come out of a national elections and with its machinery ready to go.
And while he acknowledged that there are some laws that need to be taken care of, he said the government is working assiduously to have a date named shortly.
When it was pointed out that Gecom had said last year that once government named a date it would need six months to hold the elections, Trotman said that was a matter for Bulkan to address and he would probably name that date during the budget debates.
The coalition government has promised that within its first 100 days in office, it would name a date for the long-delayed polls. Local government elections have not been held since 1994 and despite many local and international calls, in recent years, the Donald Ramotar administration did not hold the polls.
Gecom by way of advertisement has since invited persons who were trained in electoral processes to indicate whether they are available to attend further training as it relates to local government elections.
