Local Government Minister Kellawan Lall yesterday tabled the Local Authorities (Elections) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2009 in the National Assembly. The Bill seeks to extend the deadline for the holding of the polls to December 1, 2010. It also includes a proviso that enables the Minister to authorise the holding of election of a Mayor, Deputy Mayor or Chairman or a Deputy Chairman of a local democratic organ. The provision, inserted when the polls were deferred last year, had been criticised by the parliamentary opposition, fearing that it would be used for “ministerial dictatorship” over the Georgetown City Council.
Mid-2010 has been identified as the latest time at which the elections could be held, failing which they would have to be put off until after the next general elections, due by the third quarter in 2011. The timeline is in keeping with a policy that the commission needs at least 12 months to prepare for the general elections.
The elections were last held in 1994 and have been due since 1997. The Bill is the result of the failure to hold the polls by the December 1, 2009 statutory deadline. It was revealed mid-year that a delay in the start of ID card production and the completion of legislative reforms contributed to the failure to run off polls this year, and the government and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) have traded blame over the situation.
GECOM had been initially working towards meeting a November 30, 2009 deadline to run off polls. It has stated that only on February 17-almost a year after the completion of the house-to-house registration-were funds provided for the fingerprint and cross referencing exercise. Since June 2007, the commission had agreed to the production of new ID cards with the contractor De La Rue, which was approached and responded with a document indicating cost etc. However, GECOM said it was not until February 18, 2009 that the commission received the signal that funds would be provided for this exercise.
Meanwhile, work is still ongoing to complete legislative reforms for a new local government system, as well as the delimitation of constituencies under the new hybrid electoral system agreed to by the parties. After eight years, the government in April abandoned the review of reforms at the level of the bi-partisan Task Force on Local Government Reform, opting for the parliamentary review which it said would involve all stakeholders and ensure a transparent process.
