The APNU and AFC coalition has chosen to use both symbols from the two forces for the upcoming May 11th general elections and were up to late last night ironing out agreements pertaining to the name they will use for the campaign.
“The symbol will be the two parties’ symbols side by side,” a source told Stabroek News last evening.
A senior executive of the coalition said that by this morning, the coalition’s name and slogan will also be decided on and made public at a press conference, which will be held later in the day.
According to the source, one of the reasons for the decision to use both symbols is to avoid confusing voters or introducing a new image near to the election date. The source said it was easier using symbols voters already know.
Last Saturday, APNU and the AFC announced at a joint press conference that they will contest the upcoming elections as a coalition, with David Granger and Moses Nagamootoo as its presidential and prime ministerial candidates, respectively.
The announcement brought to an end weeks of negotiations with the signing of a document dubbed “The Cummingsburg Accord,” formalising the pre-electoral alliance which both sides are confident can unseat the incumbent PPP/C after 22 years in office.
The accord caters for a joint electoral slate and a 60/40 cabinet split, favouring APNU. They also agreed to reorganize the presidency to delegate more responsibilities to the Prime Minister as well as to select the representative of the electoral list and the Speaker of the House from independent members of civil society. The AFC will choose the Cabinet Secretary.
General Secretary of APNU Joe Harmon said both groups want to assure the public that in a very short time the coalition will be launched with a manifesto, with policies drawn from both APNU and the AFC.
Harmon told Stabroek News yesterday that a joint campaign committee has been established, with him and Speaker of the National Assembly and AFC executive member Raphael Trotman as the Co-Chairs.
The two sides will meet regularly to strategise and plan their campaign.
Granger has said that parties have worked out a formula which would see APNU being responsible for 60% of the financing for the campaign and AFC 40%. He said that there will be a combined finance committee for the polls.
The General Secretaries of both APNU and the AFC told Stabroek News that funding for their campaigns will be transparent and that in their agreement it caters for a complete audit of campaign funding to be made public by the first week in August of this year. “The campaign we are promising will be clean and I will also promise you that funding will be transparent,” General Secretary of the AFC David Patterson told Stabroek News.
“By 12 weeks after the election, we will have a complete audit of campaign funding… yes it will be made public. We have nothing to hide… I want to know, will the PPP do the same?” he added.
The coalition is calling for “clean” campaigning and says its campaign will not be characterised by muckraking but rather by fervent lobbying for development policies so that the populace can enjoy a “good life.” “We don’t have time to put anyone’s face next to evil people or for the calling of names and telling lies or using race for political mileage. That is dirty politics. We are sticking to issues and policies and the Guyanese people are not foolish. They know that those things cannot develop a country. It’s sound policies that will,” a coalition executive said.
