AFC unrelenting; maintains Local Gov’t Elections should be held by August 1

[www.inewsguyana.com] – Were he alive today, Former President Dr. Cheddi Jagan would have castigated those who would shed crocodile tears for him and shout his name in vain, for not holding local government elections over the 17 years.

This is according to Alliance For Change (AFC) Executive Member and Parliamentarian Moses Nagamootoo.

Nagamootoo provided an extract of what Dr. Jagan said in the National Assembly on November 7, 1986 to the second reading of the Local Government Enactment (Amendment) Bill: “I am saying that we have the Local Authorities which are there illegally and they are squandering the people’s money. They are not accountable to anybody. Nobody knows what is going on with these Local Authorities. There are a lot of rackets going on and now they have wrecked everything.”

This comes as the Governing People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) gets ready to remember the death anniversary of the former President on Sunday, March 9 at Port Mourant, Berbice.

The AFC is insisting that fresh local government elections must be held on or before August 1, 2014, as approved by legislation in the National Assembly in February.

“The AFC commends the diplomatic community and civic/social organizations for their forthright position in support of holding these elections by August 1,” Nagamootoo said in a statement, adding that “everywhere, from our cities to our villages, our communities are in shambles and suffer from gross neglect.”

The AFC Executive Member has called on the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to pronounce on its readiness to hold these elections and not allow to pass the ambivalence of the Attorney General when he asserted that GECOM was preparing for National Elections; or the Home Affairs Minister to cast doubts on whether or not the body charged with conducting elections could hold these polls.

The AFC notes that new red herrings are being thrown into the pool of mis-information and doubt such as a 180-day timetable after the date for holding Local Government Elections is announced by the relevant Minister, demarcation of new local government area boundaries and public education.

“We are against any political, bureaucratic and administrative humbugs that have jettisoned elections, due since 1997.  AFC also wish to use this occasion not only to urge early local government polls, but to complete the constitutional mandate for fully monitoring the integrity of persons in public life, by having a fully composed and functioning Integrity Commission” the statement added.

Nagamootoo contended that the Executive is in breach of the Constitution that commands the establishment of a Public Procurement Commission.