Creating a conundrum for efficacy of NDCs (Part 2)

Dear Editor,
The Grove/Diamond area is another massive housing scheme built by the PPP/C Administration, where each constituency boundary has to be clearly defined and reflect the necessary balance for size and population in the LAA. Previous approaches placed the boundaries separating some constituencies as the centre of a particular treet, which can have significant local government councillor implication if not properly defined, since the best choice person can be residing on the other side. These issues must be resolve with inclusive consultations long in advance of any election.
As for the La Parfaite Harmonie massive new housing scheme, the Local Government Election in 2016 was indeed a farce in this area, because of unsettled boundary issues. The resulting ‘tie’ vote that took place in that Local Authority Area was due to related comedies of errors by the Guyana Elections Commission.
The Malgre Tout/Meer Zorgen NDC is now responsible for garbage collection in the new massive Parafaite/Harmonie Scheme, although its boundaries are not contiguous to the NDC area where the latter is situated. (This issue will be fully dealt with later).
The boundaries that the GECOM put in place took away a substantial amount of solid area from the Canal No.1 Polder NDC. Thus the voting pattern was changed. However, the ‘not fit and proper’ GECOM staff bungled with the list of names, resulting in the removal of a key PPP/C candidate’s name from the list. It must be noted, however, that the PPP/C won the Chairman’s position at the NDC, and they are trying to get things done.
The Local Authority areas desperately need their autonomy. The elected leaders must be given the opportunity to function in the interest of the people who elected them. With valuable support from the community, particularly with the support of village elders and corporate citizens, the people, when fully connected at the grassroots level, will be able to make tremendous development in their environment.
The appointment of the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission is pivotal for the proper running of the GECOM office. There is serious work to get done, and most of all, it is clear that the new chairman of GECOM will have to clean up a lot of mess at the Secretariat.
Holding of the next Local Government Elections will bring out the best from all Guyanese, as the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils are preparing for the re-election of their chairpersons and vice-chairpersons. The hard working and reputable councillors, who have been doing their best for their communities under the created pressures, must do their best to nominate and vote for the best candidate.

Sincerely,
Neil Kumar