The AFC has denied telling government that it is no longer interested in participating in budget talks, but says an eleventh hour engagement would not serve any purpose.
“We did not write any letter regarding the budget talks or withdrawing from those talks. We have stated that our principled position is that it would make no sense to have the talks at this hour [since] it would be a government photo op,” AFC Member of Parliament Cathy Hughes told Stabroek News on Saturday.
Writing in a letter to the editor of the Stabroek News, APNU MP Carl Greenidge said that the AFC had withdrawn from the tripartite budget talks and as such there was no forum.
He also chided the Minister of Finance for not informing APNU of the supposed withdrawal of AFC.
However, Hughes explained that it is quite possible that Greenidge was speaking about a letter the AFC sent to Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon indicating that the party would not be participating in a forum on the Amaila Hydro project. The AFC in that letter explained that it refused to take part in the forum because of the incendiary words of President Donald Ramotar at Babu John a few days earlier against the opposition in general and members of the AFC, in particular.
