Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Nigel Dharamlall today announced that Local Government Elections will be held this year.
“We believe in democracy. We believe in people’s choices. We believe that for our country to continue to evolve, for development to come flowingly to our people, that we must have local government elections. We are going to have local government elections this year. We have budgeted billions of dollars for local government elections and we are going to have local government (elections) this year,” Dharamlall told the National Assembly during his contribution to the budget debate.
He pointed out, that in excess of $4.1 billion has been budgeted for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). The polls were due last year but were not held due to GECOM being not in a state of readiness owing to key vacancies, including that of Chief Election Officer. That vacancy has since been filled.
A seemingly confident Dharamlall also opined that once the polls are held the present opposition will “lose more” constituencies.
