Latest update March 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 27, 2015 News
General Secretary of the Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Clement Rohee has expressed doubts that the Guyana Elections Commission will be ready to hold Local Government Elections in November.
Rohee recently raised concerns about statements made by the Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, pertaining to the holding Local Government Elections (LGE).
In recent time Minister Bulkan said, “Local Government Elections could be held this year. But, the final word rests with the Guyana Elections Commission… And if the People’s Progressive Party maintains its position on the Elections Commission then that party will not be contesting those elections.”
However the PPP General Secretary said they are uninspired by Ronald Bulkan’s remarks.
He also stated that the Minister was caught in a very compromising situation since his statements conflicted with reality.
“When Bulkan found that he was caught with his pants down, he quickly does a ‘C.Y.A’. He requested a hastily convened meeting with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to extricate himself from the quagmire,” Rohee declared.
He further stated, what GECOM told Bulkan, was not surprising to the PPP.
The Guyana Elections Commission has made it clear that it will not be ready to conduct Local Government Elections this year, a direct contradiction to Minister Bulkan’s statements.
The Minister, according to Rohee, “desperately resorted to sophistry to deflect criticism directed at him following his meeting with GECOM, since as far as he was concerned “the APNU/AFC would be ready by November for LGE but GECOM wouldn’t.” Guyana last saw Local Government Elections in 1994, two years after the People’s Progressive Party/Civic took office.
Local Government Elections are constitutionally due every four years.
Over the past 20 years, many of those elected have since died or migrated or have lost interest in serving on the various local councils. Things reached the stage where the Government was forced to install Interim Management Committees.
In the lead up to the General and Regional Elections of 2011, the People’s Progressive Party administration promised to ensure the holding of Local Government Elections by 2012.
However, after the Party formed the first minority government in Guyana, the then President Donald Ramotar decided that it was “risky” to hold Local Government Elections while his party was in such precarious political standing.
At that time, David Granger, who was the then Leader of the Opposition, led several picket exercises calling for the holding of the Local Government Elections.
He had promised that he will hold Local Government Elections when he got into office. Granger now heads an APNU+AFC coalition government.
In the past Local Government units were extremely powerful; people spoke in awe of the Overseer who would patrol the Council and note the various indiscretions of the residents.
More often than not, the issues involved garbage disposal and the errant homeowner was sternly penalized. The result was that most rural communities were almost spotless.
In those cases, drains were dug and communities were maintained because the people paid their rates and taxes. They knew what they wanted and they knew what was expected of them.
Listen to the man that is throwing Guyanese bright future away
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