The two experts whose services are being made available to the joint committee on local government reform should both be here by the first week of next month.

Michael Murphy, the country director for the National Democratic Institute, told Stabroek News that Dr Benjamin Riley was due to arrive here tomorrow, while Prof Paul Smoke who will be advising the committee on resource allocation issues is expected during the first week of next month.

However, with the imminent arrival of Dr Riley, Aubrey Collins, The United Force's representative on the Task Force appointed by the Oversight Committee to address this issue, is concerned about the terms of reference he will be given. He told Stabroek News that based on the report of the Oversight Committee the electoral system for the local government elections might not be based on proportional representation. According to Collins the Constitution Reform Com-mission (CRC) of which he was a member had recommended that "the Constitution should provide for the electoral system at the levels of the local government below the regions to be built upon the pillars of representativeness, proportionality and accountability to the electorate."

Also he said it had recommended that "the Constitution should provide for the electoral system, at the levels of the local government below the regions, to provide for the involvement of individuals and voluntary groups in addition to political parties."

However, Collins claimed that the Oversight Committee had approved of an amendment which said, "the electoral system in respect of local democratic organs below the regional democratic councils shall provide for the involvement of individuals and voluntary groups in addition to political parties and accountability to the electors."

He told Stabroek News that if the electoral system were to be based on the amendment to the constitution it would not be faithful to the CRC recommendation.

However, Vincent Alexander of the People's National Congress/Reform said that Dr Riley would be guided by the amendment and the discussions and decisions of the joint committee. Commenting on the issues raised by Collins, he explained that with the participation of individuals unattached to any party, proportionality could not be given as high a priority as accountability and representativeness.

Representativeness he said, was the relationship between the elected and the electorate and that in order to have accountability there had to be a set of constituents to whom the person elected was accountable. Alexander said that proportionality as applied at the national level could pose a difficulty at the level of the village council, as it could be that the persons whose names were extracted might represent just one part of the village.

Alexander said too that the electoral system was likely to be based on the constituency system, but that this should not be much of a hindrance as the boundaries for the neighbourhoods in the various municipalities were already demarcated.

Dr Riley is attached to the National Centre for Development Studies, Austra-lian National University and Prof Smoke is attached to the Robert F Wagner School of Public Service, International Finance and Urban Planning.