The National Assembly has failed to comply with constitutional provisions for local democracy. The 1980 constitution provides for a countrywide system of local democracy and the establishment of local democratic organs. The democratic organs were created to exercise power by constitutional order to govern their respective local government authority areas. The previous local government election was held in 1994, thus a twenty-year gap was created during which at least six similar elections should have been held. The question must be asked: Why is the National Assembly so comfortable with such a serious lapse?
It does not defy reason to assume that the PPP/C has no interest in a system which caters for the decentralization of the power of the state, as provided for by the constitution. For the past seventeen years successive PPP/C Ministers of Local Government have refused to give the Guyana Elections Commission the order to hold local government elections. Instead, they occasionally issue calls for the establishment of Interim Management Committees –which are usually made up of persons affiliated with the ruling party- to replace elected organs chosen by the people. If that’s not an attempt to obtain power through the back door, what is?
It also does not defy reason to assume that the current and past PPP/C administrations have displayed a reckless greed to hold on to local power –a greed for absolute power over the lives of all Guyanese. This greed which is being insanely tolerated by the National Assembly is the main cause of the failure of the local governance system.
The administration is keenly aware of the slim chance it has to wrestle control of the organs of local government through the ballot. The devolutionary nature of the new system for local government elections will result in the PPP/C and all major political parties for that matter having to compete at the polls with individuals, non-political groups and civic organizations. The prospect of the administration finding worthy persons in every constituency through whom they can continue to ‘run things from Freedom House’ is extremely scant.
The PPP/C has now declared that the people have to be educated to participate in local government elections. The new system for local government elections was approved by the House since 2009. Why only now the PPP/C is harping about educating the people? Are Guyanese that stupid not to grasp the PPP/C’s intention to further delay the elections and run things from Freedom House?
The US government has volunteered 300-million dollars to help educate the people on local democracy through the LEAD project which was launched since mid-2013. The PPP/C initially gave its blessings to the project then reneged. The PPP/C wants to continue utilizing taxpayers’ dollars to campaign around the country but a foreign-funded project designed to help create a level playing field and better understanding among Guyanese is being sold to the people by the government as the work of the Devil. Every local organization and everyone of the government’s social partners have given the LEAD project the ‘thumbs up’ but this greed for absolute power cannot be contained among the leadership of the PPP/C.
What I find in my analysis is that the government is deliberately withholding adequate remuneration for Councilors in the local government system. This matter has not obtained the attention of the National Assembly. Because of this gross inadequacy, Councilors –who are mostly working class citizens of the constituencies find it very difficult to function optimally. The result is that the perception is then created that local government organs are failing and central government has to ‘intervene’ to get things done at the local government level. Councilors must be provided with the resources to do their work.
During the Burnham and Hoyte administrations the PPP/C often decried the constitution. The late President Mrs. Janet Jagan was fond of describing the provisions of the 1980 constitution as ‘draconian’. But when the PPP/C eventually got into office, that party wanted to retain the very draconian laws in Section 28:02 of the Local Government Act. The APNU and the AFC are attempting to remove the draconian regulations from the remit of the Minister of Local Government and assign them to the Local Government Commission. The transfer of those ‘draconian’ laws from the remit of the Minister to the Local Government Commission will continue to haunt Guyana because the majority of the commissioners on the Commission are to be appointed by the Government. Under the circumstances, I fail to fathom the wisdom of the House transferring dictatorship powers to the Local Government Commission.
Section 13 of the Local Government Act states that “The Minister shall have and exercise in any village or country district, any or all of the powers of a local authority whenever it appears to the Minister expedient so to do, and may exercise any or all of those powers in any of those districts whether there is or is not a local authority thereof”.
Section 14 (1) states that “Subject to this Act and the by-laws, the Minister shall have the superintendence of all village and country districts in Guyana, and shall have and exercise general powers of supervision, inspection, and control over several local authorities and the officers and servants thereof”.
Section 14( 2) states that “In the exercise of those general powers the Minister may
(a) Review the order or decision of any village council or country authority, or of a committee or any chairman of a village council or a country authority, and declare such order or decision to be invalid in which case the order or decision shall ipso facto be void, and may substitute for the order or decision any order or decision which he deems proper, and any order or decision so substituted shall have the same force and effect in all respects as if it had been made by the village council or country authority.
(b) For good cause remove from office the chairman or any member of a country authority, or any overseer or other officer of a village council or country authority and in his stead appoint a chairman, member, overseer or other officer, as the case may be.
(3) An overseer or other officer removed from his office as aforesaid shall not be entitled to any damages or payment of salary or other emolument in lieu of notice of termination of his engagement.
Section 30 of 28:02 gives the Minister the power to make desolate a village council and appoint an IMC to serve in the stead of an elected authority for several years. That is utterly unjust.
The National Assembly presides over a system which allows the Minister of Local Government to use these laws which do not apply to Municipalities and Neighborhood Democratic Councils. Section 28:02 of the Local Government Act should be repealed and Section 28:01 should be amended to update it to meet the requirements of international standards of democratic governance.
The National Assembly is to be blamed for the postponement of Local Government elections and the breach of local democracy. The Minister of Local Government is not vested with the power under Act 21 of 1997 which has amended Section 36 of 28:03 to ask the House to postpone the elections without first being advised so to do by the Guyana Elections Commission.
The Guyana Elections Commission declared its readiness for Local Government elections since 2010, yet the Minister of Local Government with the support of the House, had the elections postponed in 2012 and 2013. The Guyana Elections Commission was not consulted.
Year after year the Minister of Local Government seeks amendments to Section 36 of the Principal Act of 28:03 of the Local Authorities Elections Act. Section 36 was amended by Act 10 of 1990 which fixed the first Monday of December every three years as the date for the holding of Local Government Elections. Act 10 of 1990 also transferred power connected with holding the elections from the Minister of Local Government to the Guyana Elections Commission. It was never intended that the Minister of Local Government exercise such decisive influence over the elections process. In 1997 the PPP/C approved Act 21of 1997 which had empowered the Minister to postpone Local Government elections for ten months subject to the advice of the Guyana Elections Commission. For the past seventeen years Act 21of 1997 appears to the subject of silent unlawful approval in the National Assembly. Thus the House itself is violating local democracy, promoting general apathy and distrust of politicians.