The proposal so far tabled for the system to be used at future local government elections would see the return of single-member constituencies and first-past-the-post elections for the municipalities, which parties as well as individuals could contest.
The current local government system is based on proportional representation. The last local government election was held in 1994 and another was due since 1998.
The constituencies would be based on the wards of the city. This would require the Elections Commission delineating the boundaries of the constituencies/ wards, particularly for the new areas in Georgetown such as Sophia and Lamaha Park.
Recommending an electoral system to be used at local government elections based on the recommendations of the Constitution Reform Commission, is one of the three priority tasks that the joint task force on local government reform has been given three months to complete. The other two are the development of terms of reference for an independent statutory local government commission as well the development of appropriate procedures and systems for annual transfers of resources from central government to the local government bodies.
The PNCR tabled the proposal during the Jagdeo/Hoyte dialogue but the committee had not discussed it when the talks were suspended. Stabroek News understands that the PNCR’s proposals were based on the recommendation of the electoral expert Dr Benjamin Riley, whose services the National Democratic Institute (NDI) made available to the committee.
Other aspects of the proposal include multi-member constituencies based on the constituent villages of the neighbourhood council, with the seats allocated to any one village being proportionate to its population.
And at the level of the village councils if these are re-established as a consequence of a request by the residents, then the system to be employed would be the preferential non-transferable vote. This system, Riley suggested, would allow the voter, if the council had six seats and 12 persons were nominated, to cast his vote for the six persons he would like to represent him/her on the council.
The voter could vote for less than six persons if he so chooses but he cannot vote for more than six. The persons elected would be the six persons with the highest number of votes cast for them.
Vincent Alexander, who with Minister in the Local Government Ministry, Clinton Collymore, co-chairs the committee, told Stabroek News that PNCR was awaiting the PPP’s proposals for the electoral system.
Alexander said the committee also had to look at the recommendations of Professor Randall Crane another expert whose services were made available to the committee through the NDI. He explained that the committee did not get around to considering these proposals before the suspension of the Jagdeo/Hoyte dialogue process. The transfer of resources from the central government to the local government bodies has been a bone of contention for some time now and especially for the Georgetown City Council, which from time to time has complained of the inadequate transfers it has received.
About the third task, Alexander explained to Stabroek News that the Local Government Commis-sion was envisaged not only as a service commission, but one which would be involved in resolving conflicts between the various levels of the local government system.
About translating the reforms into legislation Alexander said that when the dialogue process between President Bharrat Jagdeo and the now late PNCR Leader Desmond Hoyte was suspended, the Committee had been in the process of acquiring the services of a legal draftsman through funding that was to be provided by the NDI.
The agreement between President Jagdeo and Leader of the Opposition, Robert Corbin requires the legislation to implement the reforms recommended by the task force to be laid in the National Assembly within six months of the completion of its tasks.