Mr Christopher Ram is dead wrong in his contention that I have “general direction and supervision over the registration of voters and over the administrative conduct of elections” in his March 11 letter to SN (‘The Minister of Local Government should not have control over local authorities and their elections’). What Mr Ram is ignorant about is the nature and scope of my work. I have a lot of it but a little comic relief from him does no harm.
Similarly, he is dead wrong in a previous letter in which he asserts that the request by me to the Auditor General to investigate alleged irregularities in Region 4 is tantamount to instructions to the Auditor General thereby violating the constitution. This one is childish and needs no response. The March 11 one is even worse, but needs to be answered given its wicked intention to fool the electorate and the general public.
Under the PNC there was such a law giving the minister such powers and one can understand the reason, elections being what they were under that regime. When elections were in the air in 1990, however, and when it was clear that the old systems were not going to work in an era of democratic elections, President Desmond Hoyte passed the Local Democratic Organs (Elections) Act (22 of 1990). That act, Section 3(1) states: “Elections shall be independently supervised by the Elections Commission and for this purpose the Commission shall have, and exercise and discharge, all incidental functions.
“(2)Without prejudice to the provisions of subsection (l), the Commission shall – (a) exercise general direction and supervision over registration of voters and the conduct of elections.”
Now Section 34(1) of that act refers to a Second Schedule. That Second Schedule amends the Local Authorities (Elections) Act (Cap. 28:03) the one referred to by Mr Ram, in the following way:
“Section 3(1) of the Local Authorities Act which reads: ‘The Minister shall –
(a) exercise general direction and supervision over the registration of voters and over administrative conduct of elections;’ has been deleted. And subsection 3(2) of that Act has been amended and provided that wherever the word ‘Minister’ appears, it should be substituted by the words ‘Elections Commission.’”
Further, the Local Authorities (Elections) (Amendment) Act of 2009, making way for new electoral arrangements at neighbourhood and municipal levels, passed by the PPP/C administration, consolidates that position.
Indeed, very complicated! Laws and the making of laws are complicated matters and need extremely close study before pronouncing on same.
I urge Mr Ram to stick to comedy; it is less complicated.
Yours faithfully,
Kellawan Lall
