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No Local Government elections in August – Rohee
General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Clement Rohee has said that his party will not support the opposition request to hold Local Government Elections by August 1, 2014.
General Secretary for the PPP Clement Rohee
According to Rohee their reasons for not agreeing to the opposition requests of holding Local Government elections among other things, is because the power to decide the readiness for such elections resides with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and not with the opposition.
He added that GECOM is not ready to hold elections at the prescribed date set out by the opposition and that the power to set the date for the Local Government Elections resides with the respective Minister.
“This is not about readiness of the opposition only. The timing of the holding of local government elections is a function inter alia of the readiness of GECOM to execute the duties and the responsibilities relative to fair and efficient preparation and conduct of these elections, the readiness of other political parties, groups and individuals, people’s awareness, education and readiness to be part of this process,” said Rohee.
The PPP General Secretary outlined that as the opposition engages GECOM with respect to its state of readiness to conduct local government elections by August 1, 2014; so too, it has been engaging the GECOM commissioners members. For that reason the PPP can posit “that we cannot support the opposition demands that this election be held by August 1, 2014.”
“We get the distinct impression from our commissioners that they are not ready for local government elections. That’s why we found it strange because APNU also have representatives on the GECOM.
I don’t see why our representatives would see something different from the other representatives from the other political party because they sit there and they discuss all the time, so there ought to be a harmony of views on a matter like that.”
According to Rohee, there are a number of issues associated with holding an election now. He said that this Local Government election will be of a new kind so it’s a very complex election “but it doesn’t mean to say that we should make it more complex than it’s actually going to be because the rules are clearly laid down.”
He said that the question of voter education has to be clearly spelt out and fully understood by the electorate as well. If the people who are going to vote in these elections don’t fully understand what is the process going in, “they would likely end up in a lot of confusion. Then we begin pointing fingers to blame other people involved for different things and that’s not what we need in a new election.”
Rohee cited the pronouncements made by the opposition over not offering support for the local government elections until the President assents to all four local government bills, “a position APNU maintains to today.”
The PPP General Secretary said that the opposition’s “sudden sense of urgency” presumes among other things that the PPP and or the government is in total control of all mechanisms and all the players responsible for ensuring local government elections by any date set by the opposition.
“In so doing, the opposition is seeking also to usurp the executive authority reposed in the minister of local government as clearly set out in section 35 A of the Local Authorities Elections Act, which provides that the Minister must determine and announce by way of order a date for the holding of these elections.”
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