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Local Govt. elections still possible this year

Aug 16, 2008 News

–    Dr Luncheon

Local Government elections may still be possible by the end of the year, despite the fact that the legislation necessary for the process has still not been tabled in the National Assembly.
This was the view of Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, who said that, based on the knowledge at hand, the task force responsible for reviewing the necessary pieces of legislation has completed its job of drafting the necessary laws.
One such piece of legislation deals with the Municipal Bill; another deals with the Local Government Commission Bill; and yet another deals with the Local Authority Election (Amendment) Bill. There is also a piece of legislation on fiscal transfers.
According to Dr Luncheon, one of the Bills, namely the Local Authority Election (Amendment) Bill, “May have been completed.”
He did note that the work of the task force was continuing and that there was no doubt that it would be able to discharge its responsibility and allow for elections in 2008.
Dr Luncheon emphasised that the work of the task force was not the only factor that would influence the likelihood of a 2008 elections.
Local Government elections have not been held in Guyana since 1994.
Earlier in the year, the Guyana Elections Commission commenced a house-to-house registration exercise that was born out of the need for the creation of an indisputable National Register of Registrants’ Database (NRRDB) which will be used as the basis for the preparation of electoral lists that would be commonly acceptable by all stakeholders as being unblemished.
The Government, GECOM and the Parliamentary political parties, on June 14, 2007, had agreed to the preparation of a new NRRDB by house-to-house registration.
“It is the expectation of GECOM, therefore, that the primary outcome of the exercise will be the creation of a pure and current NRRDB which would be perpetually updated and purified through future cycles of continuous registration and their respective concomitant claims and objections exercises…This would inevitably lead to the preparation of future electoral lists that would be commonly acceptable by and among all political parties and other stakeholders.”
GECOM registered some 430,000 persons during the house-to-house registration, which came to an end on July 4 last.
GECOM was hoping to register some 535,000 persons.
Chairman of the Elections Commission, Dr. Steve Surujbally, told this newspaper that the commission took the official list of electors (OLE) from the 2006 elections and added 20 per cent to it, which gave them the 535,000 figure.
However, according to Dr. Surujbally, only 69 per cent of the voters from the last elections turned up to vote, and this was closer to the true number of voters in Guyana.

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