GUYANA-POLITICS- Opposition party to quit coalition by year-end

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Nov. 19, Leader of the Alliance For Change party (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan, says the party will be exiting the coalition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) by year-end.

“We were going to exit as it were the partnership. We will still have a very cordial working relationship with the APNU because, of course, we are a joint party at a parliamentary level,” Ramjattan told reporters during a virtual press conference.

He said the move is in keeping with a decision taken at the level of the AFC’s National Executive.

The party, which signed onto the Cummingsburg Accord with its coalition partner – the APNU – in February 2015 and again in 2020, intends to rebuild its image and re-establish its independence.

The Cummingsburg Accord was the agreement that brought both political parties together as a coalition.

Ramjattan said though the AFC has opted not to renew the Cummingsburg Accord, it will unite with the APNU to fight for genuine causes such as a clean voter’s list.

He said the party is expected to maintain its seats in the National Assembly.

“We will have nine Parliamentarians; we will be united in parliamentary action against the PPP at that level. If we do have separate views, we will certainly express them, and I am certain if the APNU has different views, they will express them too,” the AFC Leader said.

According to him, the Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton, who is also Chairman of APNU, is aware of the AFC’s position.

“The Opposition Leader knows about our decision ….it was made very public,” he said.

Asked whether AFC’s decision not to contest the upcoming Local Government Elections is linked to the party’s decision to walk away from the coalition, Ramjattan said the AFC’s decision is simply the independent position of the party on the grounds that the voter’s list is bloated.

“We have a principal position that since the list is not clean and there are about 200,000 people there, who are not supposed to be there, it is the view that we are not going to participate. We have also asked for biometrics, and we have now learned that the PPP is not going to allow any biometrics equipment to ensure that at the place of the poll for that Local Government Elections,” he said.

Ramjattan was re-elected Leader of the AFC at the party’s last conference.