The problems of representative democracy

Dec 24, 2008 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Local government reform is not quite as simple as some would have us believe. When it comes to matters relating to democracy, even local democracy, when it comes to matters regarding representative democracy, it is extremely important that consensus be achieved.
Guyana has not had local government elections since 1994.
In those elections, the PPP dominated the PNCR but was unable to wrest control of critical municipalities, including the city of Georgetown, from the opposition. The result has been that the opposition controlled municipalities are performing no better than they did under the PNC government and this has led to a great deal of hardships for the people who reside within these communities.
In many instances also Neighbourhood Democratic Councils are not functioning as they ought to because either members have gone overseas or have passed on. Thus, what remains in many instances are ineffective bodies. In other instances, we have a situation where interim bodies are in place, something that is only supposed to be a temporary measure and not a protracted development.
What we need are local government elections but these elections cannot be held until the reform process is completed. There is Task Force which has been established to examine areas of reform but from last reports they have been stuck in the quagmire of non-consensus on two issues: the electoral system which is to be employed for local government; and secondly the system of fiscal transfers.
These are two major issues on which agreement is needed and without agreement there is not going to be local government elections.
One gets the distinct impression that neither party is interested in local government elections, more the PNCR which is now extremely weakened after the last General and Regional Elections and which has also undergone an internal metamorphosis that has seen some of its leaders depart from the party.
The PNCR is going to lose local government elections should it be held. The party is going to lose badly. This is fact that is incontrovertible. The PNCR may even find it difficult to hold on to the municipalities that the opposition now controls.
The PPP on the other hand seems battle weary and does not have the appetite to go into local government elections. As is also evident in a number of its strongholds throughout the country, it will find it difficult to attract the sort of corps to make for effective local government councilors.
The PPP simply does not have sufficient talent. Some of its key community leaders have been promoted way above the levels to which they can perform and the party may have to use some of its parliamentarians to boost its image in any local government slate that it proposes.
Meantime, the Task Force on Local Government Reform has run into gridlock and this impasse is not likely to be resolved soon. It would be ill-advised for anyone to assume that simply because there is no consensus at the level of the Task Force that this gives Cabinet a mandate to break the deadlock by putting through legislation. Without consensus it is ill-advised to proceed.
This, of course, short-changes the citizens of Guyana who have to deal with Councils that are in need of renewal. The government cannot allow this situation to continue indefinitely and should move towards broad-based interim management committees until such time as political consensus is reached.
But even if such consensus can be reached, local government elections would still be impossible. These elections would have to be held under a new voters’ list which in turn has to be extracted from the recent national registration exercise.
This exercise has left many persons disenfranchised because they were unable to complete their registrations because of the inability to obtain source documents. Major problems are therefore currently incubating and the worry therefore has to be two-fold.
In the first instance there is a need to quickly reach political consensus on the electoral system to be used. In the second instance there is a greater need to iron out the deficiencies in the last registration exercise which could, with Regional and General Elections being two years away, become a recipe for serious political implosions.

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The problems of representative democracy

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