As had been expected, Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall has informed municipalities and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils across the country that Local Government Elections will not be held this year as had been scheduled.
The elections were to be held in November or December this year.
Writing to all Councillors, including all Mayors, Deputy Mayors, Chair-persons and Deputy Chairpersons of local authority bodies on December 3, Dharamlall said that the elections have been postponed to a later date.
“You are hereby inform-ed that due to the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) lack of readiness, it is impracticable to hold Local Government Elections in the time frame stipulated by the provisions of the Local Authorities (Elections) Act…” he said in the correspondence sent to all local authorities.
In his correspondence, he informed the existing councils and their officers including the Mayors, Deputy Mayors, Chair-persons and Deputy Chair-persons that they will continue to perform and discharge the functions of their office until a successor assumes office or they have been otherwise informed.
The letter further informed the councillors that all acts done or purported to be done by a local democratic organ and the members shall be deemed to be lawfully and validly done.
In this year’s budget, some $1.1 billion had been allocated for the elections. However, with GECOM not having key personnel in place preparations have been delayed. GECOM’s former Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield and DCEO Roxanne Myers, are before a City Magistrate’s Court on various charges of misconduct during the 2020 general elections. They were terminated by the vote of a majority of the Commission.
GECOM Commissioner Vincent Alexander on a programme with commentator Christopher Ram had said that they were not likely to have local government polls before the fourth quarter of 2022.
“If local government elections are not held this year, which will not happen because they are due to be held in late November – early December and there has been no preparation, then the normal thing (is and which) Parliament has done in the past is to postpone them for one year. So you are not looking at a possible local government election until the fourth quarter in 2022,” Alexander said.
He added that the postponement of the elections would mean that government would also have to extend the lives of the Town Councils and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils for a year.
After winning the 2015 general elections, the APNU+AFC government held Local Government Elections (LGE) in 2016 after a 22-year hiatus under PPP/C governments. The elections were held again in 2018 and were due again this year. With its track record of not holding LGE, analysts say that the PPP/C government will come under close scrutiny to ensure that the polls are held as soon as possible.
“The Minister [of Local Government and Regional Development] has to inform us [of] the date for the elections and for us to work towards that date. We may have done preparatory works — we should normally do preparatory work because we know the elections are to be called between November and December. Since the CEO left, nothing was done in preparation and as far as I know, we have not heard anything from the Minister, so it is virtually impossible for GECOM to be ready for the election at the end of November into December. So it is now a matter for the Minister and Parliament to determine,” Alexander had previously said during a telephone interview.
A breakdown of the $1.1B allocated, showed that some $237.7 million was scheduled to go towards the printing of 500,000 ballots and other material, while $285.7 million was budgeted for voter education and other programmes. Additionally, $135.7 million was to go towards the training of elections day staff, $81.6 million for rental of buildings to conduct the elections and $75.6 million for meals.
