Local democracy being trampled upon – Granger

TIMES INT'L
Opposition Leader David Granger

Opposition Leader David Granger said the country’s local government system is in a crisis. Granger made this comment following the recent installation of Interim Management Committees (IMCs) in the place of Neighbourhood Democratic Councils, (NDC) which government said were not functioning properly. According to him, residents are not consulted on such issues and local democracy is “being trampled upon.” He said little regard was being shown to the regional and neighbourhood tiers of government.
A statement from Granger’s office on Tuesday said that Granger, along with fellow A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) parliamentarians Joseph Harmon and Deborah Backer, met with President Donald Ramotar, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon and Presidential Advisor on Governance Gail Teixeira at the Office of the President on Monday to discuss the issue.
At that meeting, it was agreed that bills relating to local government reform would be re-introduced in the National Assembly before the August 10 recess so that progress could be made towards the holding of local government elections.
A number of issues were raised at that meeting, including the arbitrary transfer of neighbourhood overseers; the dissolution of NDCs and the installation of the new IMCs; the allocation of resources for the Region Four Democratic Council, along with local government reform and local government elections. The Alliance for Change (AFC) was invited to participate in the meeting but did not attend.

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