Dear Editor,
There is a burning issue which the Guyana Elections Commission needs to answer as local government elections draw near. This is a question several people and political parties have been asking me since 1994, as they have observed that several members of the Community Policing Group here in Essequibo are chairmen of NDCs and are Regional Democratic Councillors.
The arrangements for local government elections must be wholly democratic and free from any military and para-military candidates.
A proliferation of new political parties will enter the elections and will field candidates for all 65 NDCs and six municipalities. The parties contesting this election should select suitable and qualified candidates who can make a contribution to national development.
The councillors, mayors and chairmen must work as part of a team to strengthen the cohesiveness of the community and therefore of the nation; reduce feelings of alienation; and induce a greater sense of responsibility and self-esteem in the individual.
A political party which would like to contest the local government elections should not run unless the initial opportunities are equal; in any case no person who belongs to the Guyana Police Force, is an RDC Councillor, a member of a Community Policing Group, or the army should run for the positions of councillor, chairman or mayor in this local government elections. Many of the grosser defects of the past arrangements can be corrected, but there is perhaps a distinction between a palliative and cure.
The palliatives do not conceal the fact that the 1994 local government election emerged out of older processes which were primarily intended to crystalise the inequitable social and political relationships constituting the system. The imbalances within the system imposed constraints and caused frictions and inhibitions unacceptable for a developing country like Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
