Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) executive Randolph “Randy” Critchlow is calling for a renewed focus on grassroots democracy, arguing that revitalising local government is essential to restoring civic participation and empowering a generation of young Guyanese who grew up with limited opportunities to engage in community governance.
In a letter titled “How the PPP Taught a Generation Not to Care,“ Critchlow reflects on Guyana’s democratic history while contending that the 22-year gap in local government elections between 1994 and 2016 weakened civic engagement and distanced many young people from the democratic process.
“You may think local government is a small thing. A matter of drains and dams, of potholes and parapets… the least of our democracy,” Critchlow wrote. “But I beg to differ.”
He argued that local government is the foundation of Guyana’s democratic tradition, tracing its roots to 1839 when 83 recently emancipated Africans pooled their savings to purchase Plantation Northbrook—later renamed Victoria Village—and established one of the country’s first self-governing communities.
“They laid out lots, raised churches and schools, and elected their own to manage the common land and the common drains,” he wrote. “Before we had a national assembly worth the name, before independence, before a flag, we had the village council. Ordinary people, fresh out of bondage, discovering they could run their own affairs.”
Critchlow contrasted that history with the prolonged suspension of local government elections during the People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s (PPP/C) previous administration.
Although local government elections were held in 1994, no subsequent polls were conducted until 2016, after the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition assumed office following its victory at the 2015 General and Regional Elections. The coalition subsequently held local government elections in 2016—the first in 22 years—and again in 2018.
According to Critchlow, that interruption had consequences extending well beyond local governance.
“From 1994 until 2016, twenty-two years, not a single local election was held in this country,” he wrote.
“A child born the year of that 1994 vote could leave school, finish university, marry, and start a family of their own without ever casting a single local ballot.”
While successive administrations pointed to ongoing reforms of local government legislation as the reason for the delay, Critchlow questioned whether such reforms justified more than two decades without elections.
“What reform takes twenty-two years? What discussion needs an entire generation to grow up before it can reach a conclusion?” he asked.
Critchlow supported his argument by referencing what he described as a 2025 review of international studies showing that participation in local governance strengthens civic engagement, political confidence, social capital and trust in democratic institutions.
“If taking part in local advocacy and the democratic process is the school where civic-mindedness is taught, then a generation shut out of that school for twenty-two years simply never sat in the class,” he wrote.
He argued that many young Guyanese never had the opportunity to participate in neighbourhood campaigns, attend community meetings or experience local democracy firsthand.
“They never knocked on a neighbour’s door for a candidate. They never argued at a community meeting. They never watched someone from their own street win a seat and fix something that was broken, and so they never felt that small jolt of recognition: ‘I did that. I can make a difference here.'”
Pointing to United Nations estimates that approximately 70 percent of Guyana’s population is under the age of 35, Critchlow suggested that much of the country’s population came of age during the period when local democracy was effectively dormant. He also noted that turnout at the 2023 Local Government Elections was about 35 percent, with nearly 300 constituencies uncontested.
“We like to say the young don’t care about their communities,” he wrote. “I beg to differ. They were never taught how.”
Critchlow also argued that the prolonged absence of elections shifted decision-making away from communities through the appointment of Interim Management Committees (IMCs), which assumed responsibility for local democratic organs after elected councils ceased functioning.
“Your town was no longer run by neighbours you elected and could vote out. It was run by appointees you never chose and could not remove, answerable upward to the minister rather than outward to you,” he asserted.
He said elected councils have historically served as training grounds for future leaders and important forums for community representation.
“An elected council is a training ground for new leaders and a stage for local grievance. An appointed committee is neither.”
Despite his criticism of the past, Critchlow concluded on an optimistic note, arguing that Guyana’s democratic traditions remain intact and can inspire renewed civic participation.
“The inheritance of 1839 was never destroyed. The village council still stands, and this generation can still be taught the thing that was kept from it: that the street is theirs to fix, the council theirs to fill, and the nation theirs to shape.”
“Some may think it is too late for that generation,” he concluded. “But I beg to differ.”
