The PPP hopes that municipal and local government elections, delayed since 1997, could be held by mid-year, by which time it is also optimistic that reforms to local government legislation will be completed.

Noting that a step towards the holding of the elections has been taken with the start of the house-to-house registration for a new voters’ list, PPP General Secretary Donald Ramotar, at a press conference held at Freedom House yesterday called on all Guyanese to support the process.

According to Ramotar, the PPP had hoped that the elections would have been held immediately after the 2006 general and regional elections, with the voters’ list from those elections being used as the preliminary voters’ list.

Since those elections were verified as free and fair the task of making adjustments to reflect any changes would have been easy, he said.

However, he opined, the opposition was unprepared for those elections and made efforts to delay the process by calling for a new registration process.

He said that as the process has begun, the PPP hopes all political parties would give the Guyana Elections Commission their full cooperation to get the job done well and without delay.

Asked about preparation for the elections with pending reforms to the local government legislation, Ramotar said that based on recent information the government and opposition members on the joint task force working on the reforms were “not far away from agreement.”