The moment of truth

Sep 14, 2014 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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President Donald Ramotar’s moment of truth has come. He can no longer hide behind pretexts about the Guyana Elections Commission’s unpreparedness to conduct local government elections. He cannot squeeze more excuses out of the three PPPC-nominated GECOM commissioners. They have already added their voices to the chorus to allow the administration to continue its campaign to deny people the right to vote after 17 years.
The President cannot send out Priya Manickchand and Clement Rohee as emissaries to fend off foreign critics. He cannot credibly deny that he did promise to hold elections in 2012 and that date has long passed.
Twenty years after local government elections were last held in Guyana, Ramotar must face the nation and tell the truth. He must realise by now that people are fed up with his lame excuses. He must understand that the People’s Progressive Party Civic administration does not have the prerogative to deny the people their constitutional right to local democracy. The Guyanese people have been denied their right to elect their own local and municipal leaders for far too long. They have even been denied their right to be told when those elections will be held.
Local Government elections, like general and regional elections, are a constitutional right. They are not a favour to be bestowed by the PPPC whenever it chooses. It is an obligation, not an option, for the President of the Republic to comply with the Constitution and to conform to the laws of the country. The President and his party – the PPPC – by deliberately delaying the holding of local government elections, are in gross violation of the Constitution and the law.
The President has violated the spirit of the Constitution of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana which states: “Local government is a vital aspect of democracy and shall be organized so as to involve as many people as possible in the task of managing and developing the communities in which they live.”
Local democracy is provided for and protected by the Constitution, specifically, Articles 71 to 78.B (‘Local Democracy’). Local government elections, last held in 1994, are a constitutional obligation and a democratic entitlement of the Guyanese people. It is mandatory for the executive branch of government to conduct the prescribed periodic elections.
The President, in the face of a resolute commitment of the National Assembly, has appeared irresolute. The Local Government (Amendment) Bill; Local Government Commission Bill; Fiscal Transfers Bill and Municipal and District Councils Bill were all passed by a determined National Assembly on 7th August 2013, thereby paving the way for elections to be held under the new system.
The President has not been strong. He has not yet assented to the first of those bills. This is mainly because the PPPC would like its Minister of Local Government and Regional Development to retain the authority to dissolve elected councils. The President did assent to the second bill but, more than one year later, the Minister has not issued the ‘Commencement Order’ that is required for the Commission to be operationalized is yet to be issued.
The President, most pointedly, has prevented the holding of elections by withholding his assent to the Local Authorities (Elections) (Amendment) Bill. This bill, at its second reading on 10th February 2014, was debated and passed ‘as amended,’ directing that elections be held by 1st August 2014. There was a reasonable expectation at that time that, at last, local government elections would be held in 2014. The President, however, seems to have made it clear that he had no intention of either obeying the mandate of the National Assembly or complying with the precepts of the Constitution.
The President, meanwhile, presides over a broken local government system. During his nearly three-year tenure of office, he has brought the municipal and neighbourhood councils to their knees. The Ramotar administration has systematically underfunded local democratic organs and undermined democratically-elected local councils, thereby inhibiting their development and impeding the provision of services to residents.
The sixty-five neighbourhood democratic councils and six municipalities, as a result, have been made ineffectual and dysfunctional. The result has been a near-total breakdown in local governance leading to unsafe, unkempt and unsanitary communities.
The masquerade is over. The President must desist from pretending to desire local elections while, in fact, he is actually preventing the holding of elections. The President must issue the ‘Commencement Order’ to operationalise the Local Government Commission; initiate a process by which the Local Government (Amendment) Bill could be returned for his assent and announce the date for local government elections to be held countrywide. The President must tell the people the truth about local government elections.
Donald Ramotar’s response to David Granger’s demand to announce the date for local government elections will determine how he will be remembered. Will he be a democrat who abided by the Constitution or as a dodgy opportunist who does not speak the truth?

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