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Local Govt. Elections not as urgent as AML/CFT Bill – PPP
By Gary Eleazar
The Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) does not believe that there is much urgency for the holding of Local Government
General Secretary of the PPP, Clement Rohee
Elections, but rather, that the average Guyanese is more interested in big ticket issues such as the passage of the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Bill.
This was the view of the Party leader, Clement Rohee, when he addressed the matter yesterday during his weekly press engagement and argued too that the PPP is not responsible for any delays in the holding of the Election.
Local Government Elections has not been held in Guyana for 20 years and A Partnership for National Unity has tied its support for the AML/CFT Bill to the assent of President Donald Ramotar to four Bills related to Local Government Elections, among other conditions.
According to Rohee, the hiatus in the holding of the Elections has to be seen in its historical context.
“It is as if there was no history in relation to the sloth and non holding of the elections. There is a reason and it is not because the PPP has maintained that no Elections will be held.”
He said that before anyone concludes that the Elections are overdue, the history has to be analyzed as to why and who is responsible. “Unless we understand the context you will be barking up the wrong tree…the PPP is not responsible for not holding Elections.”
According to Rohee, it was the PPP who first called Local Government Elections after it got in office in 1992.
He sought to point out that over the years there has been a number of developments such as constitutional reforms “and so many other things that led to where we are today in respect of Local Government Elections.”
Rohee was adamant that a blanket assertion that the PPP is responsible for Local Government Elections not being held is false: “there is a historic trail”.
With regard to the urgency of the holding of the Elections, Rohee said that in his view, based on interactions with people across the country, he gets “the distinct impression that people are concerned about Local Government Elections but they are more emphatically concerned with the big ticket issues.”
According to Rohee, persons are questioning whether calling Local Government Elections would resolve issues such as the receipt of their remittances.
The position adopted by Rohee comes on the heels of several repeated calls by a number of organisations, inclusive of the diplomatic community, for Government to call the Elections.
Western Diplomats and sections of civil society in a recent public missive in their call for Local Government Elections to be held by August 1, said that “The Constitution affirms that Local Government is a vital aspect of democracy that should allow as many people as possible to participate actively in the task of managing and developing the communities in which they live, and it mandates that local elections be held every three years.”
They noted too, that the Commonwealth Charter to which Guyana subscribes refers to an individual’s inalienable right to participate in democratic processes, in particular, through free and fair elections in shaping the society in which he or she lives.
“Parliaments and representatives of local governments and other forms of local governance are essential elements in the exercise of democratic governance.”
There is, however, no law in place which mandates that Local Government Elections be held by August 1, in Guyana, since President Donald Ramotar has not assented to the Bill recently passed in the National Assembly setting that deadline.
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