With prospects for local government elections this year looking increasingly slim, AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan says he is open to the polls being held under the present laws while final agreement is hammered out on four bills packed with reforms.
The four local government bills seen as crucial for the holding of the polls are in limbo with Minister of Local Government Ganga Persaud silent on whether he would present them to the House before the parliamentary recess begins.
“I don’t know sir, I am overseas,” was the minister’s response yesterday when contacted by Stabroek News on whether he would be present at the next sitting of the National Assembly on August 7 to present the Bills. Government has twice deferred the second reading of the four Bills. On the last occasion, the government shelved its parliamentary business after a failed bid to force an adjournment of the National Assembly’s sitting to win consensus with the opposition on the contentious Amaila Falls Hydropower Project.
Reservations over two of the four local government bills were also among the reasons given by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds for the intended adjournment of that sitting. The government’s motion to adjourn the sitting was defeated by the opposition but since Persaud was
