The parliamentary opposition parties yesterday met and said they agreed with the Guy- ana Elections Commission (GECOM) commissioners that house-to-house registration was a necessity for an acceptable voters list for local government elections.
In a statement, they said they are also disturbed by recent information that GECOM may be reconsidering its commitment to conducting house-to-house registration before local government polls and have requested to meet its head to clear the air.
The parties: the PNCR-IG, the AFC and GAP-ROAR said they met and agreed to write to GECOM Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally requesting an urgent meeting with him and the commissioners on Monday to discuss the issue.
According to the statement, which was issued via Opposition Leader Robert Corbin, the parties reiterated that the undertaking of house-to-house registration was a necessary requirement for the preparation of a clean and acceptable voters list to be used for the holding of the local government elections.
The parties said they were individually informed and assured by Surujbally, during his consultations with them in January this year, that the commission was committed to undertaking the process prior to holding the elections.
Additionally, the parties have agreed to seek an early meeting with key members of the donor community to ascertain their views on this very sensitive and vital national matter, the statement said.
This is in view of the critical and pivotal role of the donor community for the granting of assistance to the government to discharge its constitutional responsibility of holding elections.
President Bharrat Jagdeo recently said that a fresh enumeration exercise will be very costly.
Meanwhile, the parties, according to the statement, had agreed that the reform of the local government system would include the revamping of the local government electoral system and the institution of a new system for fiscal transfers.
To this end too the parties agreed that the reform should also include the establishment of the local government commission and all of these should be fully implemented prior to the holding of the local government polls.
The parties recommended too that that the Joint Task Force on Local Government Reform should be responsible for overseeing the drafting of the new Local Government Act to ensure that its provisions accurately reflect their recommendations.
PNCR leader Corbin, Khemraj Ramjattan and Raphael Trotman of the AFC, Keith Scott of the National Front Alliance and PNCR-1G, Everall Franklin of GAP-ROAR, PNCR General Secretary Oscar Clarke, PNCR executive member and member of the Joint Task Force on Local government Reform Basil Williams and Opposition Chief Whip Lance Carberry were at the meeting held yesterday.
Following their statement, a press release was issued by Clinton Collymore, Ministerial Advisor in the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. The release disclosed that consequent to an agreement between President Jagdeo and Corbin, the first meeting of the reconstituted Joint Task Force for Local Government Reform was scheduled for Monday. It noted that the members of the task force are Collymore, Ganga Persaud and Navin Chandarpal for the PPP/Civic and Vincent Alexander and Basil Williams for the PNCR. The PNCR is expected to name another person to the task force.
The release added that the meeting is to discuss two bills: the Local Authorities (Elections) (Amendment) Bill 2007 and the Fiscal Transfers Bill 2007. Draftsmen in the Office of the Attorney General, the release said, are also fine-tuning the Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2007 and the Local Government Commission Bill 2007.
The release said that the elections bill makes provision for the modification in the method of electing local government councils and also makes room for individuals to contest these elections. At the moment, only political parties and independent groups can contest the elections. Based on a recent agreement, the constituency element will account for 50% of the seats while proportional representation will account for the other half.
Collymore's release also pointed out that the fiscal transfer legislation indicates a formula "which will allocate impartially to each local government organ, sums provided by the budget for the local government sector". This has been an area of longstanding concern. The release noted that while the general principle has been agreed on details are still to be worked out and the formula will be inscribed in the regulations to the bill.
It was also pointed out in the release that the Local Government (Amendment) Bill caters for the overall reform of the system to make it more accountable and responsive. "Certain powers now held by the Minister of Local Government will be devolved onto the various neighbourhood councils and municipal councils. Under these changes, village councils will be re-established and community councils will be established for the first time". The Local Government Commission will also acquire some powers currently exercised by the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development.
The joint task force had deadlocked after a while and progress on local government reform has been painstakingly slow. Local government elections were last held in 1994 and have been due since 1997.