“Local Gov’t elections could be held this year” – Persaud

TIMES INT'L

The Local Government Ministry has promised that in 2012 local government elections will be held despite a number of outstanding issues such as the passage of several local government reform bills that have not been done. Guyana has not held local government elections since 1994.
Minister Ganga Persaud told Guyana Times International that he was positive that local elections would be held, however the half a billion dollars cut from the Guyana Elections Commission allocation will most likely hamper the proceedings.
Persaud stated that the question in relation to when elections will be held “is a question for the parliamentary select committee that is dealing with the bills”. He continued that he made an address to the National Assembly in February that proposed holding elections in December of 2012.
During his address, Persaud stated: “I was assured by every member of the National Assembly that yes they feel just like me they wanted local government elections and that they will support it; unfortunately, during the debate I saw that the funds of GECOM, which is responsible, for holding the local elections were cut.”
When this publication enquired as to why the budget was not prepared in such a way to showcase how the money was to be allocated and distributed in relation to local government elections, Persaud stated that during the budget debate, it was made clear how the Gy$ 546 million allocation would have been spent.
GECOM’s budget was cut by Gy$ 527 million from a Gy$ 902 million administration budget category and in the programme detail, the correct breakdown of local election allocation was not present.

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