Guyanese head to the polls today to participate in local government elections for the first time in almost 22 years and with a chance to shake up local politics as for the first time, independent candidates are running in key areas.
In the biggest municipality, Georgetown, the race will be closely watched as community groups and individuals, are among those running and hoping to gain enough votes to win seats on the city council. Youth for Local Government, Team Legacy and Team Benschop are among the groups who have been making their case to the electorate in recent days as they vie for seats on the council. Individuals have also been campaigning.
In Bartica, the group Bartica Independent Green Alliance (BIGA) is likely to pose a major challenge to APNU+AFC. In Lethem, an independent candidate Christina Edwards, is hoping to win a seat on the new town council.
The elections are the first to be held under a new hybrid system of Proportional Representation (PR) and First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) with each voter being allowed to vote twice: once under the PR component and once under the FPTP component. Each system accounts for 50% of the seats available in each local government area.
Further, the number of municipalities being contested have increased to nine from six. The original six were Georgetown, Linden, Anna Regina, New Amsterdam, Rose Hall and Corriverton while Bartica, Mabaruma, and Lethem are the new municipalities.
62 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) are also in play.
Several sections of society have predicted a low voter turnout for today’s polls. Traditionally, voters have not responded to LGE as enthusiastically as they have to general and regional elections and for the disciplined services vote on March 8, turnout was only 55.6 percent.
The last local government elections held on August 8, 1994 saw a voter turnout of 36%. Although the law stipulates that they are to be held every three years, this has not happened.
