Warner says postponing LGE shows disregard for democracy

Jack Warner on Monday called the government's bill to postpone Local Government Elections for a year "a flippant and frivolous disregard for our democracy.”

The proposed amendment to the Municipal Corporations Act extends the life of local government bodies for another year and effectively allows for the postponement of the local election for a record fourth time.

The Chaguanas West MP agreed that reform of the system of local government is necessary. But he disagreed that it justifies yet another postponement of the vote.

"This really amounts to a scandalous attack on our democracy. It makes a mockery of the principles of open democracy and the freedoms entrenched in our Constitution. You have abused the law," he told the House of Representatives.

"What we have is an emerging dictatorship...You can’t postpone an election because of your own legislative incompetence. That is an abuse of the process and a troubling and mind boggling abuse of the rule of law."

Warner said the Manning administration has taken away the people’s right to vote. "You have interfered with the constitutional rights of the citizens and this makes the amendment illegal and unconstitutional," he said.

He slammed the government, saying on a scale of one to ten, "this Bill gets a minus two. One hopes that this is not some kind of dress rehearsal for things to come."

He wondered if the government will soon postpone the sittings of the House, the annual budget or even general elections.

He said he believes the Government does not want an election at a time when it is hosting another major conference soon, a reference to the Commonwealth heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November. The election would be a distraction, he added.

"The other point on the reform package itself is that you say you are decentralizing power, when in fact you are giving more power to the Minister.

"How could the Permanent Secretary have the right to employ certain officials? The independence of the bodies becomes clouded. If a Cabinet Minister can hand out contracts, then the expectation is that the contractor would do the bidding of the Minister," he said.