Signalling a major shift in the party’s position on an electoral pact, AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan on Saturday said that the AFC is prepared to lead a pro-democracy alliance of progressive forces inclusive of the opposition coalition, APNU, to remove the PPP/C government from office.

“The AFC is…ready to enter into negotiations and to lead a pro-democracy alliance of progressive forces that should comprise civic groups, workers unions and political forces including even disaffected PPP leaders and members and not excluding the APNU,” Ramjattan said in his speech at the party’s biennial National Conference held at the St Stanislaus College on Saturday. A copy of the speech was made available to Stabroek News. He emphasized that the AFC must lead this alliance.

“To this end immediately following the Conference we will begin a series of engagements with organizations and will continue these apace, and in earnest, as we build a movement of the willing that is grounded in a shared vision of immediate wholesome changes for Guyana, and that is established on an agreed programme of constitutional, governance, economic and social reforms,” Ramjattan said.

The AFC’s leader comments marks a departure from his previous statements in which he had expressed opposition to any coalition with APNU. Among other reasons, AFC members had cited a desire to keep the party’s identity and support base.

Ramjattan’s emphasis on the AFC leading the pro-democracy grouping as well as that such an alliance be broad-based seems geared towards reassuring supporters that in such an alliance, the AFC would not be dominated by APNU. APNU had several times approached the AFC about the possibilities of a coalition before but the party had resisted.

There have been views expressed that the opposition can only gain the Presidency if APNU and the AFC coalesce to remove the PPP. There will be general elections sometime next year as amid political deadlock and facing growing criticism over his decision to suspend parliament, President Donald Ramotar on Saturday announced that he will call general elections but declined to name a date, saying that he will “announce further steps” in this direction early next year.

In his speech which was made before Ramotar’s announcement, Ramjattan said that the corruption of the PPP government has cost and denied the country much. He said that corrupt officials must be fired. “In Guyana far too often in our history we have been having a watchful eye on what is going on. But the watchful eye must from now on be paired with a cracking whip. What has been missing is frying the big fishes,” he said, according to his speech. “But it all means firing them first,” he stressed.

Ramjattan said that to halt the decay requires, along with the reform zeal, the integrity of leadership which the AFC has produced over the years since its formation. “But it will require more to come on board. We have to work hard to make a grander more superior organisation, to reach out to the numbers who need leadership out there. We must not have self-doubts nor lack confidence that it cannot be done. Often times we too suffer from complacency and malaise and beat ourselves up. But amidst all these challenges it can be done and it will be,” he declared.

“The PPP will be fired from office. Their extension of time is merely the notice period in the peoples’ letter of dismissal of them,” he had said.

The AFC leader told the conference that the party is operating in the certain knowledge that elections are imminent, and even now, it is preparing to launch its elections campaign in the near future. “The party is confident, based on support throughout the country, and the results of constant public opinion surveys, that it has the capacity, and the leadership, to offer Guyana a better deal and a brighter future,” he said.

“To this end the AFC firmly believes that every citizen, every group and every political party that has something wholesome to offer to the effort of a renewed and transformed Guyana must find a way to cooperate, and to deliver to the people of Guyana, a true Government of National Unity, one in which the politics of inclusion reigns over the politics of fear and division,” he said.

In this context, Ramjattan said that the AFC is therefore ready to enter into negotiations and to lead a pro-democracy alliance of progressive forces that should comprise civic groups, workers unions and political forces including even disaffected PPP leaders and members, and not excluding APNU.