The main opposition coalition APNU wants the AFC to come under its umbrella at possible 2015 general elections but the smaller party says it will not as it wants 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 told Stabroek News yesterday.
The AFC’s stance on the issue comes in the wake of APNU Leader David Granger saying that the coalition would like the AFC to revisit a Memoran-dum of Understanding that APNU had proposed in 2012 to the AFC on forming a coalition.
Granger 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.
However, Granger said that the coalition has weighed the possibility that the AFC might reject its proposition but still promises 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 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.
“There will be no swallowing up. There is no shark and sardine…it’s like the young man who is going to be married for the first time, ‘Don’t be afraid you won’t be swallowed up”, he added.
At a party press conference yesterday, an AFC panel that included David Patterson, Dominic Gaskin, Michael Carrington and Trevor Williams, stated that the party had not yet discussed the proposal of a coalition going into a possible 2015 election. However they pointed out its views on a merger of parties are the same as the last election. “Our reasons in 2011 are still valid today,” Patterson stated.
Nonetheless the party said that its policy has always been one of inclusion and will work with all other parties for the betterment of the country. “All hands must be on deck to run this show called Guyana,” Gaskin said.
The ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has said too that it is meeting with various stakeholders to gauge interest in the formation of what it is calling a “National Democra-tic Front” alliance.
Party General Secretary Clement Rohee made the announcement but was not inclined to disclose the extent of the discussions of broader alliance but noted that the party was just speaking to interested parties to test the waters to see the interest, which he noted has been positive.
He said that the basis of the idea was to advance the party much like when its Civic arm became an inclusive component.
However the party has not yet addressed if it will explore shared governance with the opposition.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon has said that he believes that 2011 would not be the last minority government that Guyana will see and feels that it may become “a feature” in Guyana’s electoral makeup.
Granger said that a position on a national agenda should have been addressed by Luncheon.
“I am glad Dr. Luncheon realises and recognizes that the PPP has become a minority, perhaps permanently… I think that is one thing that emerges out of his statement but this should have led to the next logical statement, that is the PPP must be prepared to enter into a government of national unity with other parties and I didn’t hear him say that,” he said.
