Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 19, 2018 APNU Column, Features / Columnists, News
On November 12, 2018, Guyanese will once again get an opportunity to elect new councillors to the six old municipalities, the four new ones; and sixty-five neighbourhood democratic councils. These elections will be extremely important, for, after all, they are a democratic constitutional right. President Granger has vowed that so long as he remains in office, these elections will be held as mandated by the Constitution.
Local government is a vital level of public administration because it deals with people’s daily lives, in their communities. Elections should be held every three years to allow people to democratically elect their representatives to govern their communities.
Unfortunately, for several local elections cycles, this vital cornerstone of our democracy was denied. At the heart of the urban and rural development crisis is the question of who wields power in the municipal and neighbourhood councils. There must be change at the local level if Guyana is to become a more equal and inclusive society and a less unbalanced and undemocratic state.
The Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) while in office, demonstrated its reluctance to introduce the type of root-and-branch local government reforms that would have led to greater inclusionary democracy. Six months after taking office, the Coalition administration – A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) – held local elections and began the process of reforming the broken system.
Reforms are essential to give effect to the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, which states, at Article 12: “Local Government by freely elected representatives of the people is an integral part of the democratic organisation of the state.” It states further, at Article 13, “The principal objective of the political system of the state is to establish an inclusionary democracy by providing increasing opportunities for the participation of citizens and their organisations in the management and decision-making that directly affect their well-being.”
While in power, the PPPC showed little interest in empowering the people to enable them to exercise greater control over their daily lives. The PPPC was more concerned with concentrating power in the hands of its appointed Ministers of Local Government and Regional Development. They purposely undermined democratically-elected local councils and underdeveloped communities by impeding the provision of public-services to residents. The neighbourhood and municipal councils, starved of funding, were unable to meet their statutory needs, thereby making them ineffectual. This led to the total breakdown of the system of local governance in Guyana.
A Partnership for National Unity’s struggles for local government reform while in opposition are well documented. For many weeks, led by the then Leader of the Opposition Brigadier David Granger, APNU picketed the Office of the President, demanding a date for the holding of local government elections. On several occasions, Granger wrote President Ramotar reminding him that local government elections, like general and regional elections, are a constitutional right and not favours to be bestowed by political parties whenever they chose. Ramotar was reminded that holding local elections was an obligation and not an option, anything else was acting counter to the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
APNU believes in giving people the power to design the systems and determine the services that effect their everyday lives. To achieve this, the relationship between the central and local government must be altered. Our partnership has visited all of the local government areas and we have seen first-hand the problems at the community level.
In his address to Parliament on June 10, 2015, His Excellency the President Granger proclaimed; “Your government will adhere to an empowerment policy that regularly renews local democracy by ensuring that local government elections are held- as is stipulated in our constitution. We shall fortify grassroots democracy by ensuring that local residents are allowed to play a greater role in managing their own towns and villages.”
In an address to regional leader on January 20, 2017, the President said; “The local government system was given a lease of life in March 2016 with the conduct of Local Government Elections after over 18 years. That system is still beset by challenges and these challenges can be overcome through greater consultation, through collaboration, through communication, through cooperation and coordination between the local government organs across this great country…our Constitution demands cooperative forms of governance on the part of local democratic organs. A mechanism needs to be created to ensure that the Regional Democratic Councils, the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils, the municipalities, the village councils and other regional stakeholders are able to meet, discuss and plan for development and thereby give effect to popular participation in government”.
Where is the BETTER MANAGEMENT/RENEGOTIATION OF THE OIL CONTRACTS you promised Jagdeo?
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