THE PPPC IS NOT RUNNING SCARED OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS
June 5, 2014, By KNews, Filed Under Features/Columnists, Peeping Tom, Source
The President has, within his prerogative, refused to assent to a Bill passed by the National Assembly calling for the holding of local government elections on or before August 1, this year.
It does not matter whether the explanation given by the President is justified; so long as it is legitimate then the only action open to the National Assembly would be to override the presidential veto by a two-thirds majority. Those who may wish to suggest some other course of action are flirting with legislative tyranny.
There is no need for extra-constitutional measures to be adopted in respect to the non-assent to the Bill because the non assent of the Bill does not prevent the holding of local government elections. In other words, the Bill does not mean that local government elections are vitiated. All it means is that the government is not lawfully bound by the deadline of August 1 set by the opposition parties.
Incumbency has its benefits. Amongst those benefits is the determination of the date of elections. Ruling parties throughout the world have always enjoyed the prerogative of determining exactly when elections are held within the specified time frame set by the constitutions of the countries of these parties. Elections can be held in the year by which they are due or before through what is known as “snap” elections. The right to set the date for elections has always been a prerogative of incumbent regimes. The advantage of the ruling party in determining the date of elections is offset by the advantage held by its rivals of not having to defend the present stewardship of governance. In other words, the opposition offsets the advantage of incumbency by being free to assail the record of the government in office. So both advantages equal out.
The PPPC knows when it wants local government elections to be held. It is for the opposition parties to successfully predict what date the ruling party has in mind and to ensure that whenever the ruling party exercises its right of incumbency to set the date of elections that the opposition parties are ready.
What the opposition was trying to do through the amendment passed in the National Assembly was to determine a date range in which the elections were to be held. It was trying to force the government to hold the elections by August of this year.
It would have been foolish of the government to have allowed this to happen. But there is also considerable merit in the government’s position that elections could not have been held by the date stipulated. There is a need for the populace to gain a greater understanding of the new system that is being used in these elections which is based on a mixture of plurality and proportional representation.
The non-assent of the Bill does not cancel or postpone local government elections. Local government elections will be held and they are likely to be held either late this year or early in the New Year.
The PPPC under the Jagdeo administration has always believed in what has been referred to elsewhere as “peaking”, that is, they have always timed a flurry of developmental works to coincide with elections.
This was always a poor strategy because most people saw through this ploy and felt insulted that the only time they saw improvements within their communities was when elections were due.
This is why some people make comments to the effect that the only time politicians have uses for them is in the run up to elections.
The Donald Ramotar administration seems unfortunately to be following the same ploy of “peaking”. Right now major road works are taking place in communities throughout Guyana. Also, the Ministry of Housing recently signed contracts to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars for road works in housing areas.
At the same time, the government with the support of the combined opposition was able to have approved in its Budget for 2014, a policy that seems to have elections written all over it- a $10,000 per schoolchild grant.
All of these developments point to the fact that the PPPC is readying itself, consistent with the strategy of “peaking” for local government elections later this year or early in the New Year.
Instead of the opposition parties therefore beginning their own campaign, they seem to have fallen for their own propaganda that the PPP is running scared and does not wish to hold local government elections. The PPP is not running scared at all. The PPP is exercising its prerogative of incumbency and is readying itself for these polls which it will announce when all these major projects are in full bloom and thus capable of bringing votes to the ruling party.