GUYANA GOVERNANCE REFORMS: SLOW AND NOT TOO STEADY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 GEORGETOWN 000388 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/19/2017 TAGS: PGOV KDEM GY SUBJECT: GUYANA GOVERNANCE REFORMS: SLOW AND NOT TOO STEADY Classified By: Charg d,Affaires Michael D. Thomas for Reason 1.4(d) ¶1. (C) Summary: The President's Advisor on Governance recently reported some limited progress on constitutional and judicial reform, local government elections, and the appointment of parliamentary committees, but she was skeptical about the GOG's ability to follow through in a timely manner. Given that the GOG has thus far devoted minimal attention and resources to these numerous, complex, and sorely needed reforms, Post agrees with her bleak appraisal. End Summary. ¶2. (C) DCM and British High Commissioner Fraser Wheeler recently met with Gail Teixeira, the President's Advisor on Governance. Teixeira is a longtime former Cabinet member and former Minister of Home Affairs. -------------- PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEES APPOINTED -------------- ¶3. (C) All of the parliamentary committees recommended in the 2005 Davies Report have been set up, and some have started work. Teixeira said that the new Appointments Committee, which she chairs, is working with "greater maturity" than previously. The Appointments Committee is charged with staffing the numerous constitutionally mandated commissions, all of which are operating under expired appointments. -------------- LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS: LATE 2007? -------------- ¶4. (C) Teixeira reported that the Joint Task Force on Local Government Reform, comprised of representatives from the ruling People's Progressive Party (PPP) and the main opposition Peoples' National Congress/Reform (PNC/R),has agreed on a hybrid system for local elections, with a 50/50 split between party proportional representation and "first past the post" representation. Creating constituencies for a "first past the post" system will be a major task, as will deciding how to fill seats that become vacant during non-election years. The boundaries of the existing 64 Neighborhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) and six municipalities will need to be revised to account for the many new housing schemes that popped up in the thirteen years since the last local elections. Teixeira was concerned that creating or refiguring electoral districts could lead to "ethnic balkanization," for example if a previously ethnically mixed district were split into two ethnically homogenous units. Funding for local government organs will also be a contentious issue; both persuading the national government to give up control over resources and training local government officials on how to manage funds will be a challenge. ¶5. (C) Teixeira emphasized the large volume of new legislation needed for local elections. She has asked the Attorney General Doodnauth Singh for a dedicated legal draftsman, who is to finish the necessary drafts by the end of April and present them to President Jagdeo and PNC/R leader Robert Corbin for hashing out. ¶6. (C) Teixeira said that the PPP was "embarrassed" by the long spell without local elections, especially since this was one of their main complaints during the PNC/R's rule. She gave a target range of October-December 2007 for local elections, but admitted that she was doubtful of this time frame. Teixeira maintained that the GOG did not have the funds to support local elections and house-to-house registration in the same year, and that local elections would therefore have to proceed without a house-to-house verification of the voters' list. She questioned whether the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) was really proceeding with continuous voter registration as advertised. -------------- --- CONSTITUTIONAL AND JUDICIAL REFORMS: NOTHING YET -------------- --- ¶7. (C) Teixeira reported zero progress on constitutional reforms. The GOG has not even begun to tackle the constitutional reforms already agreed upon between Corbin and Jagdeo. Teixeira noted that the mandate of the Judicial Services Commission expired in February. While she faulted Singh--the concurrent Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, and one of few technocrat Cabinet members--for poor management ability and failure to deal effectively with the IDB, she said that there was nobody else in Guyana qualified to do his jobs. GEORGETOWN 00000388 002 OF 002 -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶8. (C) Comment: The GOG says it wants to hold local government elections as early as October 2007. Given the current pace of progress, this timeline is likely unrealistic. However, the real danger is not that local government elections are delayed for a few months, but that the GOG rushes into them without empowering local government financially, or tackling crucial legislative and electoral reforms. ¶9. (C) Comment continued: There will be pressure--magnified by the reports of national election observers--to compile a new voters' list based on a new house-to-house registration exercise. There is also a danger that building a new voters' list without resolving outstanding legal issues regarding definitions of residency and who can register will ensure continuation of the electoral discord of the past decade and a half. End Comment. Thomas