Dear Editor,
Since enactment of the Local Authorities Elections Amendment Act, No 26 of 2009, a mixed electoral system has been introduced in which 50 per cent of Councillors are directly elected by their constituents and the other 50 per cent Councillors through Proportional Representation (PR).
This system of local democracy the People’s Progressive Party had numerous consultations on, in order to ensure that Guyanese were educated on a new system of local democracy.
The response from Communities Minister Ronald Bulkhan (bully-con), to justify his decisions in the enactment of 10 new Local Authority Areas (LAA) and gerrymandering 13 other LAA boundaries, is a clear indication that dictatorship is enshrined in the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition Government. This is just one of many dictatorial decisions that are being done by this Granger Administration.
While the Communities Minister is empowered to execute and enforce the law, he should realise that his empowerment was made possible through the people who voted for his political party. The Minister should also remember consultations with the residents and key stakeholders is mandatory before imposing new NDCs and rebalancing of boundaries within LAAs to ensure that democracy prevails.
The Minister is misleading Guyanese when he indicated that the new LAAs were formed because of direct pleading by residents bemoaning the lack of representation by the Regional Democratic Council. This is the first time that residents went to a Minister to indicate that they paid rates and taxes for little or no services.
The two new NDC areas in Region Six, (East Berbice-Corentyne) Kortberaadt-Plegtanker and Caracas-Wyburg, are two areas where millions are being spent on roads, streets, drainage etc by the Regional Democratic Council, and cannot substantiate the Minister’s claim of non-representation.
Disregarding the plea and cries of the residents of these new NDCs, the coalition Government and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) are treading down a clear path of dictatorship. This is not an injection of life in local democracy, as claimed by the Minister, but an injection of life in the old PNC that created hardship, victimisation, discrimination, and dictatorship on Guyanese. There is an old saying that sums up the PNC: “Tiger does get old, but don’t lose his stripes”.
It is evident that GECOM and the APNU/AFC coalition Government are speaking with the same “voice” of no consultation.
Regards,
Zamal Hussain
