No Holiday … groups, PPP want public holiday for LGE

BY Ariana Gordon, March 10, 2016, http://guyanachronicle.com/no-...lic-holiday-for-lge/

MARCH 18, the day designated for the conduct of Local Government Elections (LGE) will not be a public holiday. Government yesterday said there is no need to declare March 18 a public holiday, as LGEs do not attract the same level of enthusiasm and crowds as national elections. “There is no indication that this will be declared a national holiday. Traditionally in other parts of the world, Local Government Elections are not treated, of course unfortunately, with the same level of importance or urgency as regional or national elections and they are traditionally accompanied by lower turnouts or interest,” Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman said yesterday.
He told members of the media at a post-cabinet press briefing that government does not see the necessity for the day to be declared a holiday.
“We do not see the need for a national holiday,” he said, noting the move by the Ministry of Education to have all public schools closed on March 17 to facilitate the conduct of the long-anticipated elections.
Ramping Up Of Activism
Instead, Trotman believes that what needs to be done is the “ramping up of activism” relative to the elections. He said citizens need to be urged to vote at the elections as it is a “precious gift to strengthen democracy.”
In a statement to the media, the Ministry of Education advised that all public schools would be closed for the Easter holidays on March 17 and will reopen on April 4.
LGEs are being held for the first time after 22 years and will be conducted in 71 Local Authority Areas (LAA), nine municipalities or towns and 62 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs).
Calls for public holiday
Meanwhile, the opposition People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) has issued a call for government to declare March 18 a public holiday. In a statement to the media on Wednesday afternoon, the party said, “The PPP/C recalls that recent elections days have been invariably declared a national holiday in order to facilitate electors across the political spectrum to vote. The PPP/C recalls that it was the APNU+AFC that was pushing aggressively for Local Government Elections claiming that people were anxious and excited about being empowered to direct their local officers.”
The opposition party argued that thousands of electors reside out of their Constituencies and as such declaring a public holiday would “facilitate easy availability of time and space to exercise the franchise.”
The PPP called on the diplomatic community to take note of the statement by government of there being no need for a public holiday, noting that it can “prove inimical to the interests of the electorate.”
Echoing the sentiments of the PPP was Team Benschop’s Proportional Representative Candidate Salima Bacchus-Hinds. She told the Guyana Chronicle that her team “would like any and everything possible that will ensure persons come out to vote put in place.”
Bacchus-Hinds called on government to reconsider its decision and make the “historic moment” a holiday.
“We have not had Local Government Elections for 22 years…it is a historic moment and to know it isn’t a holiday is disappointing. Government should reconsider its decision,” she told Guyana Chronicle.
Similarly, Michael Leonard of Team Legacy said his group believes March 18 should be declared a holiday.
“Voter education has been very poor so far. GECOM and the Ministry of Communities have not done enough to drum up excitement among the voters,” Leonard told the Guyana Chronicle. As such, his group believes that “if it is not a public holiday it could deter some voters from coming out.”
Weighing in on the discourse, APNU+AFC’s representative Sherod Duncan said he is yet to find a precedent that speaks to election days being declared holidays. “I can’t find any. When I look back to the last time Local Government Elections were held on August 8, 1994, I cannot find precedence either.”
According to Duncan, “A perusal of that period of our history instead shows there was a low voter turnout with much blame being placed on political parties and interest groups’ inability to bring out the vote.”
He said whether a holiday is declared or not, “these elections are extremely important for democratic renewal at the local level, especially with respect to a system that is our citizens’ closest contact with their government; a system which offers them the tools for their own empowerment.”
As a representative of the governing APNU+AFC coalition, Duncan said his team will be working “overtime to educate residents of Georgetown about the voting process.”
“We are ready to get out the vote and move Georgetown forward,” he added.