If GECOM is responsible for conducting elections, why is the Minister setting the date?

Mar 18, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
In a March 11 letter to SN, Mr. Christopher Ram said, “The Minister of Local Government should not have control over local authorities and their elections,” and to which Local Government Minister, Mr. Kellawan Lall, responded with a March 13 letter, “The Minister of Local Government does not have supervision of elections for local authorities.”
Without rehashing the details of the charge and correction, I wish to draw to the Minister’s attention, that even if Section 3 (1) of the Local Authorities Act once read, “The Minister shall exercise general direction and supervision over the registration of voters and over administrative conduct of elections,” and Section 3 (2) has been amended to allow for the words ‘Elections Commission’ to replace the word ‘Minister’, he appears to have been contradicted by the Chairman of the Elections Commission.
In an SN March 14 news story, “AFC’s participation in Local Government Elections dependent on legislative reform,” GECOM Chairman, Dr. Steve Surujbally, reportedly said GECOM has been proceeding according to its work plan, and added that “if everything goes right, I daresay the Local Government Minister in his wisdom would decide on a date some time in early or mid-April, but that is not my decision to make.”
My question is: if the Elections Commission, and not the Local Government Minister, is now responsible for exercising general direction and supervision over the registration of voters and over administrative conduct of elections, does this ‘conduct’ not include setting the date for elections, and if so, why does the Chairman of GECOM have to defer to the Minister for setting a date for the staging of Local Government Elections?
If there a no clause in the LG Act that says the Minister must be the one setting the date then did the GECOM Chairman misspeak, thereby inadvertently making GECOM appear as a sham entity serving at the pleasure of the Jagdeo Administration? After all, GECOM also sat almost idly for 15 years waiting on the government, which failed in its constitutional duty to the people of Guyana for the same time period to ensure GECOM was in a position to stage scheduled Local Government Elections, because of petty politicking disguised as needed reforms.
The PPP Government truly is now on par with the PNC it once bitterly accused of failing to hold free and fair elections from 1968 until 1992.
Mr. Editor, Guyanese who reside in America, Britain and Canada, and are eligible to vote in those countries, can testify to the fact that elections on every level of government are a constitutional right for the people, and the executive branch is constitutionally mandated to ensure the national elections body is properly financed, furnished and functioning effectively to deliver on its responsibility on schedule.
Postponements are rare, but if they happen, there is a plausible reason. There can be no such thing as a 15-year postponement of elections to facilitate reforms, or else there will be major court battles leading to sanctions and if sanctions don’t work, then a constitutional crisis will emerge and possible civil unrest. People in developed democracies take their constitutional right to vote very seriously.
Can anyone imagine a mayor of a town in any of the ABC nations being in office for 15 years without facing elections? O
nly in Guyana, where there is absolutely no respect for the voters, can such a despicable and irresponsible attitude be demonstrated by political leaders who believe that being voted into office automatically empowers them to do whatever they like, whenever they like, including postponing constitutionally due elections for a decade and a half.
With aura demystified and faults magnified, Forbes Burnham ensured elections were held or at least appeared to be held. We could have accused him of rigging, but we couldn’t accuse him of not appearing to stage elections, and maybe it was the skilled lawyer in him that always made sure he appeared to be in accord with the law.
The economist who now presides over the nation is not so skilled, and it often shows in ways that provide comic relief for us even though we ought to take everything he does or fails to do very seriously.
So, to Minister Lall, who described Mr. Ram’s observations as comical, I would have to say the joke is on him and his government, because this government wasted 15 years hoping and trying very hard to take advantage of possible crises in towns with local governments to impress people that only the PPP has the answers and solutions needed in running such local governments.
And in a last ditch effort, it came up with the laughable concept of Interim Management Committees and engaged in your photo-ops showing how much money Central Government gave here and there to help struggling councils. All along, everything was done with one goal in mind: PPP must control everything!
In the end, the result is not what the government expected, and so it has to settle for staging LG Elections without the major reforms or even an assurance of being in complete control of all levels and areas of government.
Truly, if it weren’t for the rather serious nature of the issue of your government failing to fulfill its constitutional obligation to the people of Guyana for the last 15 years, I’d say the people of Guyana should now be the ones laughing this government out of office, because I am sure that as Guyanese keep fleeing for a better life elsewhere, but especially the Caribbean, the rest of the Caribbean must be laughing at us in derision for our failure as a people to stand up for our rights in the face of gross political ineptitude under girded by a wanton disregard for people.
Regardless whether the Minister or Chairman of GECOM is responsible for setting a date for Local Government Elections, I can only hope the angry and frustrated people of Guyana use this upcoming LG exercise to send the first of two powerful signals to the PPP and its government: enough is enough.
Emile Mervin

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