Generally, there is high voter turnout at elections where the results matter. Unfortunately, in most countries people do not see local elections as particularly important and thus voter turnout is usually lower than at national elections. It follows that turnout will be particularly low at local elections when voters are frustrated with incumbent administrations: people are unlikely to participate in a relatively unimportant process to support a regime with which they are disappointed. When concerns are raised about the low turnout at the 2018 local elections in Guyana, it simply means that voter participation fell much below expectations, but were we not over-ambitious?
