The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) in its preparations for Local Government Elections has recommended to the Minister of Local Government that the number of seats in seven Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) be reduced to allow for adequate delimitation of constituencies in a manner that will facilitate effective representation.
Minister Kellawan Lall says while he has studied the recommendations thoroughly and have found favour with them, he needs the political stakeholders to be allowed time to consider them in a consultative approach before he moves to the stage of signing an order authorizing that the recommendations be brought into effect, GECOM stated in a news release yesterday.
However, GECOM Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally has expressed the commission’s “great concern . . . [that] the consultative process must be done within the shortest possible time so that the ongoing preparatory work for the holding of Local Govern-ment Elections must not suffer any slippage,” the release said.
A team of senior personnel and commissioners of GECOM, headed by Surujbally, held a strategic meeting with Lall last Friday to discuss the fundamental need for the number of seats for the NDCs, which are geographically small and/or under-populated, to be reduced before the minister makes any order pertaining to the delimitation of constituencies.
The meeting was a follow-up to a previous one between GECOM and Lall at which the commission had undertaken to put together a proposal for the reduction of the existing number of seats for NDCs, which are geographically small and/or under-populated and with suggestions for the number of seats respectively for consideration by the minister.
However, ample consideration was given to the minister’s earlier advice that the boundaries of the existing NDCs will not be changed for the upcoming Local Govern-ment Elections.
Prior to Friday’s meeting, GECOM had sent to Lall for his consideration a comprehensive document containing the recommendations of the commission pertaining to the delimitation of constituencies for Local Government Elections within NDCs which are geographically small, and/or under-populated and which need to be addressed in the interest of effective representation at local government levels.
In preparing the document, GECOM’s senior technical staff had conducted in-depth analyses of the physical structure of all of the NDCs in Guyana.
An examination of population densities within the respective NDCs revealed that there are several areas of concern which need to be addressed to allow for effective representation at the community levels.
Consequently, the release added, GECOM has recommended that the number of seats in seven NDCs be reduced to allow for adequate delimitation of constituencies in a manner that will facilitate effective representation.
However, ample consideration was given to the minister’s earlier advice that the boundaries of the existing NDCs will not be changed for the upcoming Local Government Elections, the release said.
Some of the factors which are considered as crucial to the delimitation process and which were shared with the minister include existing boundaries, existing patterns of human settlement, population density, communities of interest, geographic features, financial and administrative capacity of the respective LGAs, and financial and administrative considerations which need to be addressed.
While thanking GECOM for the proposal, Lall noted that he had studied the recommendations thoroughly and gave the assurance that he found favour with them.
However, he underscored the “need for the political stakeholders to be allowed time to consider the commission’s recommendations in a consultative approach before he moves to the stage of signing an order authorizing that the recommendations be brought into effect.”
GECOM had already met representatives of ten political parties on August 26 to apprise them of the principles which will serve to inform the delimitation process leading up to the establishment of constituencies for Local Government Elections.
Meanwhile, the GECOM chairman also brought to Lall’s attention, as a matter of concern, the fact the President Bharrat Jagdeo had not as yet assented to the Local Authorities (Elections) (Amendment) Act 2009, which had been approved by the National Assembly. He noted that this was essential to the holding of the Local Government Elections.
Lall said this matter was currently being dealt with by the Attorney General’s Chambers and would be concluded in a manner that would not interfere with GECOM’s timetable for the conduct of Local Government Elections, the release stated.
