All stakeholders were consulted – Granger
Aug 20, 2020 , Source - Kaieteur News Online - https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...e-consulted-granger/
Parliamentary selection…
The selection of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) candidates for Guyana 12th sitting of Parliamentary is embroiled in internal conflict between its constituents after top executives were not included on the list.
APNU, a coalition of five parties led by former President David Granger, has now come out with a statement deeming the allegations circulating to be “mistaken, misleading and misplaced” as all stakeholders were consulted before the list was submitted.
A leaked list was published and saw top ranking members such as Chair of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R) Volda Lawrence along with General Secretary, Amna Ally’s name not included.
Added to that, no representative from the Justice For All Party (JPAF) was included.
The fact that Lawrence was excluded angered Senior PNC member, James Bond, who took to social media to issue a scathing message to Granger in which he noted that her exclusion was tantamount to a “slap in the face of the entire PNC.”
JFAP General Secretary, Savitree Singh-Sharma, also commented on that party’s exclusion.
APNU in response, denied that there was discrimination or preferential treatment meted out to partners during the extraction process.
While this is so, a few persons on the list told Kaieteur News that they were not aware that they were selected as Parliamentarians for the coalition.
Kaieteur News made contact with Coretta McDonald; former Natural Resource Minister, Raphael Trotman; former Junior Infrastructure, Minister Annette Ferguson; along with former, Education Minister, Nicolette Henry and former Telecommunications, Minister Cathy Hughes whose names are on the list.
While Ferguson declined to comment, the rest expressed shock and surprise that their names were included and noted that they were not consulted.
APNU in its statement said those selected to represent the Coalition were required to meet the nomination criteria that included citizenship (proof of nationality), competence, community service, constituency representation, ethnic balance, gender balance, generational balance, geographical balance, occupational balance, and political party membership.
The APNU noted too that upon launching its 2020 elections campaign, each party needed to campaign aggressively in order to increase the parliamentary seating allocations.
Granger, reportedly, pointed out that the smaller parties would need about 7,000 votes to qualify for a single parliamentary seat.
It would appear that the only parties that met this particular criterion were The Guyana Action Party (GAP) and the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) as they will have candidates in parliament.
According to the APNU statement, “it would be false and regrettable, for anyone to state that small parties within the APNU are being used, abused and discarded.”
They pointed out that all parties that comprise the APNU are “valued members of the partnership” and urged them to continue to work to achieve its goal of a more cohesive society.”
Further, the coalition noted that, “it must be organized and committed to develop Guyana into a united, stable and prosperous nation” and added that will not deviate from their founding principles.
JFAP was the only constituent apart of the coalition that made calls for Granger to concede defeat in the protracted March 2020 Elections.
After the declaration, Granger announced a criteria list for his constituent parties to earn their slot in Parliament. He said he needed
“Not fake parties, not cardboard parties” thus ruling out many of the smaller parties within his coalition.
The party is however yet to address the utterances made by Bond.
