LEAD Town Hall meeting to be held in Linden

[www.inewsguyana.com] – The USAID’s Leadership and Democracy (LEAD) Program continues with its Local Government Town Hall Meetings across the country which will be taken to the mining town of Linden, Region 10 tomorrow, Thursday, October 30.

The meeting will commence at 17:00 hours and will be facilitated by Chief of Party and Head of the USAID Leadership and Democracy Project in Guyana, Glenn Bradbury.

The USAID LEAD Program is administered by the International Republican Institute (IRI). Under the Program, IRI is hosting a series of nation-wide Town Hall meetings to provide information to the general public on Local Government and voter education on how Local Government elections are to be conducted when they are held.

So far meetings were conducted in Rosignol, Rose Hall, New Amsterdam and Georgetown to which hundreds of persons turned up.

Bradbury told iNews recently that from his interaction, it is clear that a lot of Guyanese want Local Government Elections (LGE) even as he pointed out that Guyanese in other parts of the world are participating fully in the electoral processes and take their civic duties seriously in those adopted countries.

He reminded that the purpose of the town hall meetings are to deliver civic education and discuss among other things, what local government is, what it does, why is it important to participate in the process and the responsibilities and rights of voters in such elections.

He pointed out that a relationship has been established with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) where a representative is present at all meetings to help answer questions and to ensure that the information being disseminated is accurate.

He made it clear that he has no political ideology but is only interested in consulting with people to hear what issues they have and try to provide assistance through his program.

The LEAD project which commenced in July 2013 is expected to end on April 1, 2015.

The Project has three main agendas; to assist and support the development of youth and women organization so that their voice is heard by all Parties, to work with the National Assembly’s staff and elected officials to make it work better in serving the people and to education the population on local government elections.