Welcoming the commitment to conclude the reforms, the party said in a statement that it feels vindicated in its demands for all reforms to be in place before the holding of elections. Further, it emphasised that it is prepared to cooperate and to work unceasingly on an established platform of mutual respect, equality and good faith, until all the promised reforms are in place.
“Any local government elections without the reforms would be a meaningless exercise and would only serve to legitimise the very bad governance that prevented the reforms,” it explained. “The people have waited for 13 years for meaningful local government elections to be held and they are prepared to wait a few more months to ensure that all of the necessary and promised reforms are put in place,” the party added.
In response to Thursday’s announcement by President Bharrat Jagdeo of a “last ditch attempt” to conclude the reform process, the AFC called it “a clever formulation” of a declaration that local government elections will once again be delayed, albeit for the reforms to be implemented. “It is well known that the reforms being demanded were mandated in the Constitution so what we in the opposition expect as we go forward, is good faith and faithfulness to the constitutional mandate,” it said, while pointing out that there is very little to negotiate and quibble about if all the parties honour and uphold the rule of law.
The party agreed that the people have grown weary and fed up of the delays. As a result, it said there is a duty to deliver, through elections, a system that is healthy, energetic and complete in all its parts. “One that can grow and mature independently with little government intervention and controls,” it explained.
Meanwhile, the AFC also responded to the recent urgings of Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally, that the relevant stakeholders complete the reforms and allow poll preparations to be completed without impediments. The people were told that they would have a new system that would deposit the instruments of democracy and empowering people at the grassroots level, the party noted. As a result, it said merely to have the elections machinery in place is merely to have one half of the package in place. “There has to be an enabling environment to accompany the machinery for elections to be held,” it said, adding that the successful development of a healthy and sustainable local government system would follow. “The two must go hand in hand. It would appear that one piece may have arrived earlier than the second. We must wait for the other to be fitted into place as it stands to reason, that one cannot proceed without the other,” it urged.
Against this background, the AFC reiterated that GECOM, as an autonomous constitutional body, has a constitutional obligation to produce credible elections within an enabling democratic environment. “Having the machinery, personnel, and money in place are secondary factors to those considerations that say that the constitution has mandated that local government elections are held under a reformed system,” it said. The party further stated: “GECOM is very much a stakeholder in deciding the question of whether there are elections for the sake of it or there are elections following the implementation of reforms that truly gives the people power over their lives.” As a result, it added that it will support GECOM’s call for inclusion in the finalisation of the reforms.
