ROPE- A- DOPE

Jul 03, 2014 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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There continues to be calls for Local Government elections. These calls include undiplomatic conduct by some foreign emissaries accusing the President of Guyana of being inconsistent in his defense of the constitution.
Even if that is the opinion of the representative of a foreign State in Guyana, it is undiplomatic for the issue to have been expressed publicly. A Letter of Protest should be dispatched by the government to the foreign power expressing disappointment and regret at the comments of its emissary.
But even as sections of the diplomatic community are prepared to make undiplomatic comments about the consistency of our President, it is clear that the ruling party is far from being disinterested in Local Government elections.
The ruling party is trying to do what the opposition parties did to it in the 2011 elections campaign. Back then, the opposition parties ran low-keyed campaigns and these lulled the supporters of the ruling party into believing that victory would have been easy. Many supporters of the ruling party stayed away from the polls and this cost the ruling party its parliamentary majority.
The recent census results confirm that there has been no appreciable decline in population that can account for the large number of registered voters that stayed away from the polls. In so far as the ruling party was concerned the loss of votes, compared to 2006, that it suffered at the 2011 polls was not a result of a decline in the resident population. As such it can only be attributed to their supporters staying away from the polls for various reasons, primarily over confidence and complacency.
The PPP is attempting to return the favour to the opposition. It is attempting to lull the opposition parties into believing that it is not fearful of holding Local Government elections. It wants the Opposition to become complacent and to deliver to the ruling party a landslide victory as it achieved the last time Local Government elections were held.
The PPP is practicing rope- a- dope politics. It is allowing the Opposition parties to punch themselves out in demanding these polls and then the PPP will spring a surprise date on them which will see the Opposition parties so drained of energy and resolve that by the time the elections come around, the PPP would have kayoed them.
As part of the rope-a dope, the PPP is claiming that the Guyana Elections Commission is not in a state of readiness for the polls and that there are constitutional hurdles to the signing of the Local Government Bills. And the diplomatic community is being unwisely drawn into commenting on this state of affairs.
But while there is this demand for the holding of Local Government elections, there also remain concerns about the electoral system that will be used within the Municipalities. At least one potential candidate has expressed concern about the fact that citizens are not going to directly elect their Mayors within the Municipalities. There has been a call for the election of Executive Mayors, a suggestion that is being rejected in some quarters.
What this shows is the unsettled nature of the electoral system for Local Government elections. It is ironic that the holding of Local Government elections is being held out as important to democracy and yet the people have not been directly asked whether they agree to the present system of a non- executive Mayor.
Is the will of the legislature, including the Opposition parties, reflective of the wishes of the people? In other words, do people want to directly elect their Mayor or do they wish to simply elect a council which would in turn elect a Mayor?
The disadvantage that this present system presents to individual candidates and to small parties is obvious. These small parties stand little chance of gaining any Mayorship unless they can win at the minimum a plurality of seats on a Council.
There is also the problem whereby in Georgetown, the largest municipality, some five wards are to be assigned one seat in the fifteen that will be contested for using a plurality system. Would the citizens of Georgetown not be more comfortable with having a representative from each ward?
These are important concerns about the system of local government elections which are being glossed over in favor of pressing for the holding of local government polls.
Instead of foreign diplomats devoting their energies to forcing the holding of local government elections as part of their democracy- promotion projects, they should question how democratic is the present system of local government elections.
The best way for foreign powers to promote democracy is not to press for local government elections but instead of using the same resources that they are devoting to this exercise towards encouraging opinion polls that would help to determine whether the people indeed are in agreement with the system that is being used for local government elections.

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