While the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) continues to lambaste the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) for its failure to facilitate the hosting of Local Government Elections (LGEs) for 18 years, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) also played a part in postponing those processes. This was according to Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, during his live Facebook programme, “Issues in the News”, aired last evening.
The PNCR is the largest party within the APNU partnership.
According to the AG, the PNCR helped to defer these electoral processes through the National Assembly by way of joint applications.
“Some of my critics, who are listening out there will say that [Local Government] Elections were not held for 20 years under the PPP – that is so, but there is a reason why. The country was going under Local Government electoral reforms, and both the PNC and the PPP were working together for years in the background to bring about these reforms. And that is why when Local Government Elections came, there was always a joint application made in the Parliament for those elections to be postponed. Joint application meaning, an application by the PPP and the PNC for the elections to be postponed until we passed a series of legislation and effected a series of Local Government reforms,” the AG said.
Back in 2011 after the APNU+AFC secured a majority in the National Assembly, the PPP/C found itself at the receiving end of allegations condemning the party for subverting the constitution by denying the hosting of those elections.
“When you check the records of the Assembly, as I’ve explained, they (PNCR) were very much part and parcel of the decisions to postpone the elections,” he reiterated.
