AFC to officially end seven-year marriage with APNU in December

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Former Member

AFC to officially end seven-year marriage with APNU in December

By Editor --- November 18, 2022 --- https://www.guyanastandard.com...th-apnu-in-december/

The Alliance for Change (AFC) announced today that it is ending its seven-year marriage with the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). The divorce takes effect on December 31, 2022.

The announcement was made during the AFC’s weekly press conference. AFC Leader oKhemraj Ramjattan told the press that the decision is one of good faith, as the party intends to regroup and restrategize for the 2025 elections.

Khemraj explained that the party made its decision at the party’s annual leadership conference to separate from APNU. He noted that while their political partnership has ended, the two will still remain allies in the national assembly.

“We will still have cordial working relations with APNU because of course we are a joint party at the parliamentary level and even for fighting for the general causes such as a clean voters’ lis,t we are certainly going to work along,” Ramjattan said.

Significantly, the AFC’s decision to part ways with its coalition partners was one that sprung from issues from within the coalition. Ramjattan was asked whether these issues played a pivotal role in the party calling it quits with APNU.

“We have had our problems and I don’t want to make all the problems public…” Ramjattan said. Executive Member Cathy Hughes then said, “I think it has been ongoing and maybe up to about three months ago at a formal meeting that these issues were put on the table…” Hughes said that the AFC, even while a part of the coalition, remained an independent party.

She added, “We are at a point where we are going back to our roots, and going back to who we are and what we stand for…”

While the party has made its decision internally, Leader of the Opposition and head of APNU Aubrey Norton has not been officially notified of the exit. The party said that in the coming days, an official correspondence will be sent to Norton.

Back in 2015 on Valentine’s Day, the AFC and APNU signed the Cummingsburg Accord which saw their official political marriage. The two then contested the 2015 elections and won against the People’s Progressive Party Civic. The two parties, as part of their agreement, shared several ministerial offices and even those at the municipal and regional levels.

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Former Member

@Former Member posted:
AFC to officially end seven-year marriage with APNU in December
By Editor --- November 18, 2022 --- https://www.guyanastandard.com...th-apnu-in-december/
The Alliance for Change (AFC) announced today that it is ending its seven-year marriage with the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). The divorce takes effect on December 31, 2022.
“We have had our problems and I don’t want to make all the problems public…” Ramjattan said. Executive Member Cathy Hughes then said, “I think it has been ongoing and maybe up to about three months ago at a formal meeting that these issues were put on the table…” Hughes said that the AFC, even while a part of the coalition, remained an independent party.
She added, “We are at a point where we are going back to our roots, and going back to who we are and what we stand for…”

Eh-eh-eehhh .... soooooo.... after seven years of crawling completely away from the fundamental reasons to create a political organisation, dem All Fuh Channa bais and gals hoping to rejoin Kunta Kinte, Toby, Chicken Jorge, Fiddler, etc at dee Roots.

11/18/223:04 PM

Billy Ram BalgobinBilly

Aubrey told them to go. They can't attract significant number of votes to make a difference for APNU. Useless and dispensable.

11/21/2210:05 AM

Former Member

Norton mum on fate of AFC parliamentarians

Posted by: Denis Chabrol in News, Politics Tuesday, 22 November 2022, 15:59 0 Comments --- Last Updated on Tuesday, 22 November 2022, 15:59 by Denis Chabrol --- Source --- https://demerarawaves.com/2022...fc-parliamentarians/

Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton on Wednesday declined to comment on the fate of the nine Alliance For Change (AFC) parliamentarians after that party withdraws from the coalition with his People’s National Congress Reform-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).

“When we are formally communicated with , we will then make the decisions as to what we will do. There are a number of options that exist and we will at the right time respond,” he told a news conference when asked whether the AFC lawmakers would be recalled. Pressed on whether that would be one of the options, he said that would be hinged on the announcement and the situation at that time.

Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton and a number of APNU and AFC parliamentarians. At extreme left is AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan.

Mr Norton said he has so far received no official communication from AFC about its decision to exit the seven-year old Valentine’s Day 2015 political agreement styled the Cummingsburg Accord but that party was free to leave the coalition. “We continue to believe in coalition, we will work with coalition partners, we continue to work with the WPA (Working People’s Alliance), we will continue to do coalition work. We, however, will live with what the reality is. If the AFC decides it will go its way, so be it. We do not intend to beg anyone to stay in the coalition,” he said.

For its part, AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan has said his parliamentarians would be taking its own positions on issues and backing APNU on others such as the need for a clean voters list and the use of a biometric system to verify electors identities at polling stations.

Mr Ganesh Mahipaul, a People’s National Congress Reform Central Committee member and APNU parliamentarian, sought to down-play the impact of the AFC’s impending withdrawal from the coalition. He said it was merely an electoral alliance. “I’m not aware that the AFC has detached itself or is detaching itself. From my communication with members in the AFC, I’m aware – and knowing also what happens in the APNU- that the agreement between APNU and AFC it will expire on the 31st of December 2022 and what was said to me is that there would obviously have to be a new agreement, a new discussion so that there can be a new friendship,” he said, adding that talks would continue about coalition politics that could lead to a new agreement.

Mr Norton, who is also Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform and APNU’s Chairman, declined to say whether the WPA was closer to rejoining the APNU.

The WPA, which walked away from APNU following the March 2020 general elections, has complained publicly about the lack of consultations in APNU about political and government policy-making. The AFC has not hidden its displeasure about APNU’s refusal to give up the Vice Chairmanship of the Region Four and Region 10 Councils.

The AFC’s then executive member Charandass Persaud and a governing APNU+AFC parliamentarian, had voted in favour of a People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC)-sponsored no-confidence motion in 2017 that had effectively resulted in a hamstrung David Granger-led coalition administration until elections had been eventually called in March 2020.

11/22/224:03 PM

Former Member

@Former Member posted:
Norton mum on fate of AFC parliamentarians
Posted by: Denis Chabrol in News, Politics Tuesday, 22 November 2022, 15:59 0 Comments --- Last Updated on Tuesday, 22 November 2022, 15:59 by Denis Chabrol --- Source --- https://demerarawaves.com/2022...fc-parliamentarians/
Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton on Wednesday declined to comment on the fate of the nine Alliance For Change (AFC) parliamentarians after that party withdraws from the coalition with his People’s National Congress Reform-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).
Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton and a number of APNU and AFC parliamentarians. At extreme left is AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan.

Eh-eh ... it looks like Rumjhaatt izz in ah extremely grim mood while Farton is getting ready boot dem All For Channa bais and gals from the coalition.

11/22/224:12 PM

Former Member

Nail in the coffin for APNU+AFC coalition

By Staff Reporter | November 19, 2022 --- Source --- https://guyanachronicle.com/20...r-apnuafc-coalition/

AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan

–Ramjattan confirms AFC’s divorce from APNU
–says relationship has had its problems

THE divorce papers have been filed, and a turbulent and unproductive relationship will soon come to an end.

Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan has confirmed that his party will be parting ways with the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), thereby putting “the final nail in the coffin” for the coalition.

It is no secret that there was trouble in the ‘Coalition’ camp, especially after 2018, when a member of the AFC crossed the floor to vote in favour of a no confidence motion against his own government.

Even back then, the discord was noticeable, as former parliamentarian Charrandass Persaud shared a view which perhaps resonated with other members of the party.

He said: “We are sitting in Parliament like ‘yes-men’ to APNU, and we are AFC. And we have not blended with APNU. The other parties have; we have not. The government is APNU+AFC; we have not blended.”

To add salt to the wound, the AFC continued to lose support, and there have been reports of a reduction in membership, because many believe that the party has lost its voice and its way; traits that might never be regained.

Senior party leaders, including Raphael Trotman and former Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, for instance, have migrated, and are now relegated to the fringes of Guyana’s political landscape.

The AFC has been reduced to begging the People’s National Congress (PNC), the main party in the coalition, to honour agreements at the local government level to have AFC candidates in top positions.

The latest such example is in Linden, where the PNC has rejected the AFC’s candidate to fill the post of Vice-Chairman of Region 10.

This, however, is just the tip of the iceberg as it regards the issues facing the coalition, as Ramjattan confirmed on Friday that the relationship has had its fair share of problems.

Asked about the issues regarding the candidacy for Vice-Chairman, Ramjattan revealed: “That is not necessarily the only problem; we have had other problems,” but he did not want to make all of them public.

Chairperson of the AFC, Cathy Hughes, said that only about three months ago in a formal meeting, a number of the problems and issues that the parties did not agree on were discussed.

She went on to say that while their existing agreement, known as the Cummingsburg Accord, is expected to come to an end at the end of December 2022, it was one that was based on a coalition going into government.

This agreement, she said, was never really designed for a situation which sees the parties out of government and in opposition. Hughes said that exiting the coalition will see the party moving back to “its roots”.

It is clear, however, that the party has nowhere to turn to, since it has already said that it will not be contesting the Local Government Elections (LGEs), which affords stakeholders the chance to engage Guyanese at the community or grassroots levels.

Even when contesting at that level, the AFC has suffered immense defeat; this was seen particularly in 2018, when it attracted a mere four per cent of the votes.

Beyond LGEs, although Ramjattan is optimistic that the party will be able to retain seats in Parliament, the fact remains that the APNU+AFC contested the 2020 General and Regional Elections together, and the Coalition’s list is still headed by former President David Granger, who, essentially, has the final say on who sits in Parliament for the Opposition.

The AFC also has to contend with Leader of the Opposition Aubrey Norton, who has shown nothing but contempt for persons who are “not on his side” or share differing views from his. His abrasive behaviour was noted even by the Guyana Press Association (GPA) in a recent statement condemning a ‘Coalition’ member’s treatment of a media worker.

Ramjattan has said that the AFC will soon write officially to Norton, informing him of the Party’s decision to leave the coalition.

11/22/224:26 PM

Former Member

Possible new agreement with APNU will be decided in 2024 – AFC

By Editor --- December 11, 2022 --- 0 --- Source --- https://www.guyanastandard.com...decided-in-2024-afc/

A new agreement between the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance for Change (AFC) will be decided on by members of the AFC in 2024. This is according to AFC Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan.

Executive Member of APNU Ganesh Mahipaul two weeks ago in response to a question by this news outlet, expressed the view that the separation may be “temporary” and could possibly make way for a new agreement between the AFC.

Ramjattan was therefore asked recently by the Guyana Standard whether he would be open to talks with its coalition partner to come up with a plan to avoid the divorce.

Ramjattan responded, “The decision to leave was decided upon by our members during the last National Leadership Conference. As such, we will leave that decision to them when we meet again in 2024.”

He continued, “I think just like APNU, the AFC sees this (separation) as an opportunity for us to go back to the ground and meet with our supporters and strengthen our bases. It is something we need.”

Meanwhile, when asked by the Guyana Standard whether an official correspondence had been sent to the Leader of the Opposition Aubrey Norton, Ramjattan said that the letter had not been dispatched.

Ramjattan explained that the two party’s plan to meet in the next couple of days to discuss a number of issues of which he did not disclose. He reaffirmed that despite the separation, the two parties will remain allies on the national front.

“We want to let the Government know that the coalition is not dead. There is no death to us. We are taking time to reevaluate to be better. Don’t let them run with the idea that this is the end of us,”Ramjattan posited.

The party had previously announced its exit from the coalition last month. At the announcement, the party said that it had not notified its coalition partner about the exit, even though the party plans to exit at the end of the year.

12/11/225:26 PM

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