Dear Editor,
Local Government Elections (LGE) will not be held this year (2022) but from all indications, it can certainly be held in the first quarter of 2023 providing the Minister of Local Government, Nigel Dharamlall acknowledges GECOM’s advice and proceeds to announce a date for LGE in 2023. In the meantime, as preparations proceed, the opposition sponsored representatives at GECOM, continuously persist in throwing up obstacles at the weekly statutory meeting of GECOM. Clearly, they have embarked on a wrecking exercise aimed at blocking GECOM’S efforts to hold of LGE in the first quarter of 2023.
The targets are three fold; the Chair, the CEO and the work plan for the elections. Because of their distracting efforts and spurious claims to prove the CEO incompetent, while taking advantage of the Chair’s tolerance and patience, the CEO was compelled to return to return to the drawing board and return on nine (9) occasions with nine (9) revisions of his work plan to guide the Commission, GECOM’s Secretariat and elections staff with the statutory and administrative guidelines for the realization of LGE 2023. The process of agreeing on a realistic work plan appears to have recently reached its zenith, leaving the Chair with the option to write the subject minister advising about a window for the holding of LGE in 2023.
In the circumstances, the Chair must be commended for bringing an end to the tortuous back and forth, engineered by the opposition sponsored Commissioners whose sole objective is to frustrate any consensual agreement on an implementable work plan for the holding of LGE in early 2023. The APNU+AFC’s attempts to throw a spanner in the works was reinforced during a recent exchange of views on GECOM’s Current and Capital Budget Estimates for 2023. In the course of that exchange, attempts were made to include provisions for a fresh house-to-house registration exercise, an additional Claims and Objections period as well as the procurement of electronic equipment and software for fingerprint capture for biometric identification at the place of poll. Accepting these demands would mean no local government elections in 2023 or none at all!
This attempt, long suspected in coming, was met with staunch opposition from the three government-sponsored GECOM Commissioners. From all appearances, the APNU+AFC alliance, working through their three Commissioners, are bent on frustrating GECOM’s commitment to hold an early LGE in 2023. The Ali administration is keen on holding of LGE in early 2023. It is now up to GECOM’S Chair to advise the Minister of Local Government about a window for the holding of those elections. A date identified by the Minister will then set in motion a realistic and implementable work plan for a successful LGE in early 2023.
Sincerely,
Clement J. Rohee
Commissioner, GECOM
