«The issues of “governability” in Local Administration, invoked by the government and other forces, are being used as a pretext. The government of NW reintroduces a challenging electoral system, making the first power all-powerful - with a 43% share. It will be able to elect a mayor and a regional mayor, while for the trade union to declare a strike at such a rate is forbidden.o» says the KKE in a statement «on the government's announcements on the new electoral system in local government».
As he goes on to note, «all bourgeois governments have shaped a suffocating, reactionary institutional framework, over the past years, in the Local Administration, turning municipalities and regions into a lever for the advance of the anti-people's offensive, with the subversion of labour relations, the expansion of retribution, the commercialisation and contraction of basic social structures, the tax raid, etc.
They have a common strategic choice, to align the operation and funding of local government with the needs and priorities of business groups, away from and against the perpetuated and unmet needs and aspirations of the people.».
«The KKE, on the principle of equality of the vote, as far as this is possible in the conditions of capitalist exploitation, defends firmly and without “yes, but”, the system of simple unadulterated proportional representation in the election of local bodies. It does this without any illusions about the role of local government as a regional state institution, aligned with the central state's unpopular policy.
On this basis, we clearly oppose both the reintroduction of the threshold for the representation of political forces and the extortionate second round, which is outside the objective of integration, reinforces the person-centred character in the functioning of these institutions, thus also reproducing phenomena of rot, factionalism, which are also generalised at this level», the communication stresses.
He adds, then, that «it is time to finally remove the institutional framework that forbids parties to directly put forward candidacies for the organs of all levels of local government. A deeply hypocritical, structured setting, which feeds the false image of allegedly self-governing and “super-party“ candidacies and an environment that misleads and ultimately annihilates the responsibility and accountability of political parties with regard to the candidacies and the performance of the elected officials they support anyway».
«The “stumpy” simple proportional representation, introduced by the SYRIZA government in the Local Administration, leaving of course the blackmail of the second round intact, was aimed at the institution of the mayor/regional governor to mark the expanded bourgeois consensus in the evolving reversals in the Local Administration.
The government of the New Democracy is now taking its turn in changing the electoral systems, which the ruling parties have accustomed us to and which have nothing to do with the faithful reflection of the popular vote. .
This initiative of the government comes to assist the main work of the reactionary anti-people's reversals, which have been unfolding for years in the field of local administration, regardless of which bourgeois party is at the helm of government,» KKE points out and concludes its statement:
«In any case, what the government is defending with the electoral system it is currently proposing, as well as the new reactive adjustments it is preparing to bring to local government, is the pursuit of the state and its local institutions to serve more effectively and uniformly the rapidly changing needs and priorities of large business groups. Because, as we know, “time is money” for capital and its political representatives, and possible delays caused by an unexpected organised popular intervention should be anticipated and if possible overcome. The reactionary electoral system is only one part of their reactionary repressive plans, which only the organised people and their movement can cancel.».
