The joint task force on local government reform will resume its work on Saturday, when it meets to consider a report, which Local Government Minister Clinton Collymore has prepared.
The committee was re-established to complete recommendations on an appropriate electoral system for future local government elections, an appropriate system for making annual fiscal allocations to the local government bodies and determining the terms of reference for a constitutional local government commission.
Stabroek News understands that the task force has completed its work on the local government commission which would primarily be responsible for staffing matters and monitoring the adherence of local government bodies to the various regulations.
Still to be resolved are the electoral systems to be used at the various levels of local government at future local government elections and the system of the annual allocation of resources by the central government to the various local government bodies.
The task force has to determine what electoral system it would recommend to the president and leader of the opposition for implementation based on proposals submitted by the PNCR and the PPP/C.
The task force, in making recommendations, is required to take account of the recommendations of the Constitu-tional Reform Commission (CRC).
With regard to the electoral system, the CRC recommended, "the Constitution should provide for the electoral system at the levels of local government below the regions be built on the pillars of representativeness, proportionality and accountability to the electorate."
It also recommended, "the Constitution should provide for legislation which would allow for the lower tier of local government to be represented at the tier immediately above."
It further recommended, "The Constitution should provide for the electoral system, at the levels of local government below the regions, to provide for the involvement of individuals and voluntary groups in addition to political parties."
Stabroek News understands that the PNCR proposed that at the level of the municipalities the electoral system should provide for the municipalities to be divided in wards/constituencies which could either be single member or multi-member depending on their size. According to this system, the candidate with the highest number of votes being declared the winner or in the case of multi-member wards/constituencies, the candidates with the highest number of votes. In the case of multi-member wards/constituencies, the voter would have to indicate the candidates for whom he/she wishes to cast their vote.
At the level of the neighbourhood democratic councils, the PNCR proposed that the villages constituting the neighbourhood should be constituencies and be allocated seats based on their populations. The system would operate as at the municipal level with the candidate(s) with the highest number of votes being elected to represent the village on the neighbourhood democratic councils.
Stabroek News understands that the PPP/C has proposed a mixed system of first past the post and proportional representation for the elections at the municipal and neighbourhood democratic councils with the majority of the seats being decided by the proportional representation system.
Stabroek News has been informed that the PNCR rejected this proposal but indicated that it was prepared to look at a system which allowed for half the seats to be decided by a system of proportional representation. The PPP/C has yet to present a revised proposal.
With regard to the allocation of resources, Stabroek News understands that the proposal before the task force recommends a formula for the allocations to be made based on the population size of the individual local government bodies, the infrastructure and services they provide, the revenue base of the various bodies and their capacity to utilise the resources provided.
Stabroek News was told that before the allocations are made it would be necessary for a determination to be made of the functions to be assigned to the local government bodies at the various levels so that the allocations would match the functions.
This newspaper understands that the task force is of the view that because of the technical nature of the proposals that it is not equipped to deal comprehensively with the proposal to provide the leaders with a considered opinion.
When originally established during the Jagdeo/ Hoyte dialogue process in 2001 the task force was given a 12-month deadline to complete its work to allow local government elections to be held during 2002. However, as a result of the political impasse, which was not broken until May last year, those elections have had to be postponed and prospects for elections this year would depend on how fast the proposals are agreed and given legislative form. Local government elections were last held in 1994 and since then many of the persons elected at those elections have either migrated, died or simply lost interest in the work of the various bodies. In the case of one municipality, Linden, the council was dissolved and an interim management committee appointed. In the case of the Rosehall municipality, there was a change of mayors as a result of the intervention of the Local Government Minis-try.