Dear Editor,
The last local government elections (LGE) were held in Guyana in 1994, therefore it is wrong for the minority PPP regime to delay them any further. According to the constitution, local government elections must be held every three years unless a bill extending the time-frame is passed in Parliament and assented to by the president. But this is not the case this year. The delay therefore is a wilful attempt to stall the process and thus violate the people’s rights.
The constitutional provision is not to be exercised whimsically to allow the government to foist itself upon the populace. The PPP minority government is therefore morally and constitutionally obliged to call LGE immediately. By delaying LGE, the PPP regime is much like the unwelcome guest who tarries at the dinner table long after the meal has been consumed.
But the President armed with autho- rity that is cloaked with illegality,
surreptitiously conditions the minds of the populace to accept as fact that the delay of the LGE is to make sure that everyone gets the opportunity to vote. It is for this reason that PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee claimed that many deceased persons were on the Preliminary List of Electors.
The PPP regime has distinguished itself over the past twelve years for little beyond its public contempt for the people and the constitution, the blatant waste of the taxpayers’ money, massive corruption and gross incompetence. That Guyana ranks second to last after Haiti in the Caribbean on the Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International tells its own wretched story. According to the most recent Auditor General’s report, millions remain unaccounted for in ministries and state agencies, the magnitude of the sums lending a certain grandeur to the crime. Meanwhile, however, the people’s expectations have been growing daily with the country’s miseries.
Yours faithfully,
Asquith Rose
Harish Singh
