The nomination of former PNCR MP Vincent Alexander to the vacant seat on the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is unlikely to affect the work of the Joint Task Force for Local Government Reform.

Alexander is the Co-Chairperson (along with the PPP/C’s Clinton Collymore) of the bi-partisan task force, which was set up to make reform recommendations to the President and the Leader of the Opposition for implementation. The task force has been charged with determining the electoral system for future local government elections, an appropriate system for making annual fiscal allocations to the local government bodies and determining the terms of reference for a constitutional local government commission.

At the start of the month, Alexander was named as the nominee of the parliamentary opposition parties to fill the vacancy on the commission created by Haslyn Parris’s resignation.

When contacted about whether serving on both panels could be a possible conflict of interest, he told Stabroek News that he did not think so. He said he did not believe the two posts had any relationship, since the task force procedurally reports to the President and the Leader of the Opposition. He also noted that no one has brought up the issue.

Alexander said yesterday that although there had been meetings between him and Collymore at the end of last year, the task force has remained inactive. The staging of local government polls is contingent on the completion of its work, but there has been no actual progress in over two years.

Although Alexander’s nomination to the commission is not surprising, it has come after recommendations from the all of 2006 general elections observer groups for the de-politicisation of GECOM and for a review of the process for its composition to avoid divisions along political lines. Significantly, the Carter Center is among these groups. The Carter-Price formula, used since the 1992 elections, governs the composition of the commission. It provides for the appointment of the six members of the commission – three appointed by the President, acting in his own deliberate judgement; and three appointed by the President acting on the advice of the Opposition Leader after meaningful consultation with the opposition parties represented in the National Assembly.