Local Government Elections
The Alliance for Change is on record stating that as a party “The AFC will participate in Local Government Elections only when the legislative reforms mandated by the Local Government Task force and agreed on by all parties and the International Community has been put in place”.
Our position on the Local Government Elections remains the same.
In a direct response to the AFC’s position, His Excellency President Bharrat Jagdeo has committed his Government and the PPP/C to “A last ditch effort to conclude the outstanding Local Government Reforms”, however over three weeks have passed and the Special Select Parliamentary Committee on Local Government Reform has not been reconvened.
The AFC believes that if the PPP/C Government is serious and fully committed to the holding of Local Government Elections under a reformed governance system, this committee has to be reactivated immediately to conclude agreement on the outstanding Bills. Any further delays will be deemed undemocratic and will continue to deny the people of Guyana their desire to take control of the management of their communities, free from the direction of Central Government.
The AFC remains committed to do whatever is necessary to ensure that all outstanding legislations are agreed between stakeholders and passed in the National Assembly.
We also note, with grave concern, that GECOM has ceased their voter education campaign. With the next Local Government Elections being held under a new electoral system, we consider it absolutely necessary that GECOM should utilize this current period to expand on their voter education process. This will allow for the holding of Local Government Elections immediately after the agreement and passage of the outstanding Bills.
Finally, the AFC notes the allegations and counter claims being made with regard to GECOM’s procurement policies. We take this opportunity to urge His Excellency to provide the Auditor General with all relevant information relating to this matter, so that a detailed investigation can be undertaken.
AFC LENDING SUPPORT TO DIAMOND SUGAR WORKERS’ STRUGGLE
For the past several weeks, and as recently as today, members of the AFC’s executive have been in contact with workers of the Diamond Sugar Estate, and their families, with a view to providing advice and expertise as they sought to negotiate with GuySuCo on the issue of the closing of the Diamond Estate fields. The suffering that is already arising from the displacement should be enough to move anyone to want to bring relief. As has been the case recently with Bauxite workers at Aroaima, we believe that the obvious injustice being suffered by hundreds of workers at Diamond, and their families, cannot go unanswered. We must be involved.
We had hoped that the GuySuCo board, comprising mainly PPP/C “big shots”, would have seen it as both practical and humane to offer the workers there, the option of being declared redundant and therefore entitled to Severance benefits, or of being transferred to another Estate in East Demerara. Unfortunately, this was not to be and so the recalcitrance, callousness and insensitivity that has been meted out to the working people of Guyana elsewhere, is now being adopted to deny the workers at Diamond their basis and just entitlements and rights. We have seen the high-handedness in dealing with bauxite workers and sugar workers in the past even as a select, cloistered few enjoy super salaries and benefits. This nonsense has to stop.
The AFC has therefore decided to lend critical support to the workers’ struggle and to do so together with union leaders and other civic leaders and organisations to fight for justice. We will be offering in the main, legal and other technical support and advice as the workers prepare for a big fight against a big bully. GuySuco needs to remember that cricket is coming and it is not only rain that can be disruptive.
On a final note we cannot fail to mention that the Ministry of Labour appears to have become a toothless poodle drawing hundreds of millions from the national coffers annually but unable to assist one worker in distress when faced by these large conglomerates. We will therefore be lending our fullest support to the Motion of No-Confidence filed against the Minister of Labour for sitting quiet in the face of these manifest injustices. We expect that we will find similar action being taken against any government Minister who fails or refuses to act properly.
End.
For more information contact:
Alliance for Change
226-0181
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