Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07GEORGETOWN445
2007-05-09 16:49:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Georgetown
Cable title:  

LOCAL ELECTIONS IN 2007: MAYBE YES, MAYBE NO

Tags:  PGOV PREL KDEM GY 
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DE RUEHGE #0445 1291649
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 091649Z MAY 07
FM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5172
INFO RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0200
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA 2225
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
C O N F I D E N T I A L GEORGETOWN 000445 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/07/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM GY
SUBJECT: LOCAL ELECTIONS IN 2007: MAYBE YES, MAYBE NO
Classified By: Ambassador David M. Robinson for
reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


C O N F I D E N T I A L GEORGETOWN 000445

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/07/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM GY
SUBJECT: LOCAL ELECTIONS IN 2007: MAYBE YES, MAYBE NO
Classified By: Ambassador David M. Robinson for
reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)



1. (U) Summary: Rhetoric about local elections, more than
ten years overdue, is heating up. The ruling People's
Progressive Party (PPP) wants them before the end of 2007;
the opposition People's National Congress (PNC) wants a new
voters list first. In the end, it may come down to what
President Bharrat Jagdeo wants, and he is leaning toward a
quick vote this year. Resident donors, including the U.S.,
Britain, Canada and the EU concur that voters need an
oportunity soon to repopulate organs of local government, but
without electoral and financial reform, municipal balloting
amounts to little more than democratic window dressing. We
should keep that in mind when the inevitable request for
money help comes in. End summary.


2. (U) Guyana last held local elections in 1994; the
constitution requires them every three years. In a recent
letter to the Guyana Elections Commission, Donald Ramotar,
head of the ruling PPP, demanded the lapse be fixed before
the end of 2007. He further insisted on using the existing
voters list, compiled in 2001, rather than wasting "another
two years" conducting the door-to-door update the opposition
PNC demands.


3. (U) PNC leader Robert Corbin pushed back, publicly
accusing the PPP of bad faith for ignoring the
recommendations of a bipartisan task force established to set
conditions for the past due vote. He said the group's draft
report proposed a number of reforms now pending legislative
action, including new electoral and municipal financing
mechanisms. He also rekindled the debate over the voters
list, saying he only reluctantly accepted it for the national
contest but would draw the line now. The list does not
reflect Guyana's large out-migration, mainly of Indo-Guyanese
PPP supporters, who the PNC wants off the list despite the
absence of a legal mechanism to remove migrants from the
rolls. Partisan bickering over the list nearly scuttled the
2006 presidential vote, and Corbin is demanding a revision
before he commits the PNC to a new round.


4. (C) The DCM and Poloff met with PNC task force chair
Vincent Alexander and later with PPP chair Clinton Collymore
on May 4 and 5. Each deflected blame to the other for the
current stalemate. Alexander said the group last met in
January 2007 and failed to reach consensus on key issues.
Slightly askew from party-mate Corbin's version, Alexander
accused Collymore of sending an uncleared package of reforms
to the legislature. Collymore spat back, saying the task
force met regularly and achieved most of its goals, even
agreeing on the reforms he sent forward. He went on to
excoriate the PNC for "bellyaching for propaganda" on reform,
adding that a house-to-house voter update should be done
before elections in 2010 but was not necessary now. There is
no timetable for resumption of task force talks.


5. (U) President Jagdeo has made no public commitment on
timing, but has indicated he supports holding local elections
sometime this year. He acknowledges that municipal
governments are broken, and often simply absent, and tied
their revitalization to a larger reform package announced
shortly after his reelction in August. Informally, Jagdeo's
timetable calls for local elections in 2007, house-to-house
voter registration in 2008 and 2009, and another round of
municipal balloting in 2010, before scheduled national
elections in 2011. He is mum about the critical issues of
local budgets and the dynamics of political representation at
the sub-national level.


6. (C) Comment: Political decision-making in Guyana rests
with the president alone. If he wants local elections this
year, he will get them. His eye is on a bigger prize: making
sure his own successor comes from the PPP ranks in 2011.
Pushing a municipal vote now with the current list and
without governance reforms probably serves that purpose, at
least in eliminating one of the only issues giving some
traction to the opposition. If elections go forward, we
likely will be asked for funding. Locally, we agree with the
British, Canadians, and EU missions that our help should be
contingent on progress on key reforms first, including an
iron-clad budgeting system for municipalities, currently
hostage to the whims of cabinet level ministers, and clarity
on who is constitutionally entitled to vote. End comment.
Robinson