Culled from The Independent of April 5, 2002.

As IEC set election date Local Gov’t Bill set for enactment

Reports reaching The Independent suggest that the long awaited Local Government Bill, which would eventually pave the way for the Local Government election will on April 8 be tabled before members of the National Assembly for enactment. Sources intimated that a draft copy of the Bill has been sent to the Speaker of the National Assembly, which will enact it in its next sitting. According to sources close to the Department of State for Local Government and Lands, the Bill signed by the then Secretary of State for Local Government and Lands Momodou Nai Ceesay was prepared since last year in accordance with section 193 (1) of the 1997 constitution, which stated that “local government administration in the country shall be based on a system of democratically elected councils with a high degree of autonomy’’.

Sources further added that the draft Bill was also based on the directive principles of the state policy section 214(3), which stated that the “state shall be guided by the principles of decentralization and devolution of governmental functions and powers to the people at the appropriate levels of control to facilitate democratic governance.’’ Sources added that the Bill was also prepared in the spirit of part 111 of Vision 2020 on strategic issues, which aims to encourage participatory governance and a balanced development, as government pursue an intensive political and institutional decentralization process.

All these our sources added shall contribute to poverty alleviation and diffuse the different socio-economic tensions that spring out of rapid population growth, rural-urban drift, unemployment and regional disparities in economic development. Sources further noted that the innovation of the Bill reflect the need for the Local Government Authorities to effectively and efficiently operate within the legal framework that is reflective of the imperatives of the would-be new dispensation. The institutionalization cum legalization of the Ward Development Committees, as well as Community based organisations, are innovations intended to empower communities and individuals in determining their development priorities and ensure their enlightened participation in democratic governance.

Sources further noted that the raison d’ętre for all this is predicated on the fact that popular participation in national democratic processes, government, as well as socio-economic development, will not only change the nature and direction of the developmental interventions, but will also lead to a type of development, which is more responsive to people’s needs, desires and ipso facto, demand-driven. Meanwhile an insider at the National Assembly has told our reporter that the Speaker Sheriff Mustapha Dibba and Assembly members have received a draft copy of the Bill, which would be enacted in the next sitting of the Assembly. It could be recalled that the delay in processing the Bill by the Department of State for Local Governments and Lands has forced the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to postpone the election, which was slated for November 16, 2001.