Major legal hurdles in postponement of LGE

Dear Editor,

Dear President Ali, congratulations as the newly-elected President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
GECOM and CARICOM had declared that you had won the presidential election for the 12th Parliament, and I will respect you as the President of Guyana, unless the court decides otherwise.
I notice from what I am reading and seeing so far, that since sworn in as president, regarding local government elections (LGE), that you may have started to go down the wrong road. You may have to be careful with your advisers, who are telling you to postpone the LGE.
Local government elections are due on the first Monday of December every three years, in accordance with Section 7 of Act 10 of 1990.

This means it is due on the first Monday of December 2021, unless you use your members of Parliament to violate the people’s right to vote on a timely manner every three years, by causing an amendment to the Act to postpone the local government elections.
Since the establishment of Act 10 of 1990, Mr President, the Central Government minister in Parliament has been using the Parliament to postpones the LGE, thus violating local democracy
While any member of Parliament hold the authority to table any bill to amend the laws, they do not hold the power to table a bill to postpone the local government elections, without consultations with the Regional Democratic Councils of each region and its lower-tiered local governments authorities, which will be affected by the postponement.

Tabling a bill, Mr President, to postpone LGE without consultation with local government authorities, will be a violation to Article 13 of the Constitution, which states that the principal objective of the political system of the state is to establish an inclusionary democracy by providing increasing opportunities for the participation of citizens, and their organisations in the management and decision-making process of the state, with particular emphasis on those areas of decision-making that directly affect their well-being.

While I fully understand that the Minister of Local Government is the provider for Local Democratic Organs under Section 5 of Act 12 of 1980, that does not give him the dictatorship authority over Local Democratic Organs telling them when elections should be held, especially with the elections date already fixed by law.
Mr President, with due respect, GECOM need to get itself in order, and make sure the elections are held in time, as stated in the Act.

We must remember that the power is vested in the people who voted for their 25 regional representative in parliament- the RDC councillors and their lower-tiered Local Democratic Organs councilors- these are the people with the consultation authority to decide on the way forward for LGE for their respective areas. That is, if there is a problem in holding the elections on time.
Central Government cannot use what has taken place after the 2020 national and regional election to postpone the LGE in 2021. They have to work with GECOM to repair the damaged image, created by selfish persons who are paid staffers of the state.

Concerning the appointments of REOs for the Regional Democratic Councils, it is the duty of the RDC and the Local Government Commission, through consultation, who hold the authority, to make the decisions who should be the REO for a region- not the President or the local government minister. Otherwise, democracy is dead.
Article 78 A of the Constitution of Guyana did not give the President or the Local Government Minister the power to appoint REOs- any laws in the past which did give such power is now inconsistent with the Constitution which was amended.

Also, Mr President, the REO cannot also be the Chief Accounting Officer- this practice is wrong. This violates as the statutes are set out in 28:01 Section 74 and 75 for separate officers to be REO and Chief Accounting Officer.
While Section 10 of Act No. 20 of 2003, the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act, give the Finance Secretary the authority to designate someone as the head of Budget Agency, such person has to be the head of the financial department of the RDC, not the REO- it will be a conflict of interest.

Let us fix the local government authorities, not degrade them. Let us give them financial authority, by allowing them to licence all businesses and vehicles in their local government authority areas.
A percentage of the Environmental Tax should go to them along with a percentage of the Value-Added Tax which is collected from their areas.
Let us make the LGE financially independent so they can pay their councillors something instead of a stipend.

You should know that since 2006, the RDC councillors have been receiving $10,000 per month with the NDCs’ even less.
The present taxes for local government authorities cannot make them financial independent to do their work- we need better systems in place.
You are elected as President to govern Guyana in a just manner, not to be unjust. Let us work to fix the broken image of our country.

Michael Carrington,
Former MP