APNU leader David Granger recently raised again the idea of an ANPU/AFC coalition but AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan is against such a move saying it would leave the party as “dead meat.”

Ramjattan recounted to Stabroek News yesterday that at their most recent meeting, Granger indicated that he would like to raise the issue of a coalition with AFC. Ramjattan said they told the APNU leader that they were in no position to deal with it at that stage. He added that he indicated to Granger that the matter would have to be profoundly discussed and deliberated on by the party.

The AFC leader added that he also gave his personal view that the AFC and APNU would be better placed in contesting elections as separate bodies and would do better against the PPP.

Ramjattan said that personally, he does not support an APNU and AFC coalition. However, the party at its various forums will discuss the matter and give a response to APNU. The AFC leader stated that at this stage, he is “very much against it.”

According to Ramjattan, if they choose that route, there is every likelihood that the PPP will “make hay in that kind of sunshine” using its propaganda machinery. The party would then be “dead meat,” Ramjattan stated explaining that the AFC’s financiers could withhold their support and this would drastically affect the party. “There are some other considerations that will make the possibility of that kind of project almost non-existent,” Ramjattan stated.

“I told him this is not going to go anywhere,” Ramjattan added saying that the polarization of race and the history of the PNC could be detrimental to the AFC and it could lose its constituents, particularly those who were disaffected with both parties.

“I was very much taken by surprise. After all the engagements we have had, it came at this moment,” Ramjattan said.

APNU had approached the AFC about the possibilities of a coalition before but the party had resisted.

In August, APNU had said that it wanted the AFC to come under its umbrella at possible 2015 general elections but the AFC responded that it would not as it wanted to keep its identity and support base.

“At this time no… when persons joined the AFC was because Guyanese, they needed that change. For us to join APNU would defeat our purpose and we risk losing our support base,” a party executive had said.

The AFC’s stance followed Granger saying that the coalition would like the AFC to revisit a Memorandum of Understanding that APNU had proposed in 2012 to the AFC on forming a coalition.

Granger had said that while he was optimistic that come next general elections the coalition will win the most votes, partnering with the AFC will almost guarantee an APNU presidency. When this happens, he said, he will not define his or any other party as winners or losers, majority or minority but will seek to have an inclusionary democracy. “The APNU is not interested in winner takes all, we are interested in a partnership and prepared to enlarge that partnership,” he said.

Granger said the coalition had weighed the possibility that the AFC might reject its proposition but still promised that in that event it would still be asked to help in the governing of the country. “Even if the AFC does not join prior to the election I would include them in the governing of the country. Read my lips, I am serious. This country needs a different attitude for governance. We have had too long, way too long of this… [We] must move away from this thinking of majority government,” Granger posited.

In an apparent attempt to persuade the AFC, Granger had promised that the party will not lose its identity. “It will retain its identity and its ability to campaign either on its own or with APNU… but when the time comes we are nominated as a partnership,” he said.