With just two weeks until General Elections, the APNU+AFC Coalition will be releasing its party manifesto this week.
Leader of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan yesterday said that personally he would like to see an official launch of the party manifesto, which was to be sent to the printers today. He said that funds were being spent on ensuring that party rallies were well organised as reaching the voting populace was incredibly important.
Ramjattan said that party messages will be focused on the concepts found within the manifesto as the countdown to the May 11 election continues.
He noted that having six distinct voices in the coalition had its challenges, however, “in relation to matters of policy we are in all in agreement. It is in relation to style and the tone of the document. The best ways to construct the, I would call thematic approaches, that took time.”
Ramjattan said that “when you are dealing with six [parties] you are not going to be centralist in your approach, we always want the greatest amount of accommodation as possible”.
Speaking of the leaked portions of the manifesto, Ramjattan said that “largely what was leaked, the Alliance For Change has agreed to and supports”.
Since the leak of portions of the manifesto that dealt heavily with empowerment schemes for women and other vulnerable groups, Ramjattan stated that the corrections have been made.
In the unauthorised excerpt, the coalition pointed out that in Guyana several constraints limit women’s collective capacity to transform the principles of peace, justice, security and stability into everyday practice. Some of these constraints, it argues, include violence and physical abuse against women, limited access to finance for the promotion of entrepreneurial activity and insufficient protection under the current legal system.
The coalition promised to facilitate economic empowerment through the increase of micro credit programmes and the establishment of job centres across the ten regions as well as advocate for lower interest rates at financial institutions for female-headed households.
One of the largest areas of social development that will directly impact the facilitation of economic empowerment was the coalition’s promise to increase government-funded childcare services “to support women, especially estranged mothers, single mothers, victims of various forms of abuse.”
Following the coalition’s launch, presidential candidate David Granger said that within its first 100 days, an APNU+AFC government would announce a date for local government elections, free up the telecoms and ICT sectors and set up a constitution reform body and the Public Procurement Commission, among other things.
He had explained that in addition to the agreement signed between the two parties, the alliance will make a public commitment to address priority areas during its term in office, such as a programme for the reconciliation of the people.
“These priority areas include a programme for healing and reconciliation and the introduction of a meaningful constitutional reform programme geared towards improved governance and their fair representation, the sustained improvement of crime prevention and the security environment, local government reforms and the holding of local government elections,” he had said.
The delay in the launch of the manifesto has been observed with criticism. Observers have noted that the plethora of rallies being held provided ample venues for coalition members to run through mechanisms they will initiate.
The coalition launched after weeks of negotiations with the signing of a document dubbed “The Cummingsburg Accord” on February 14, 2015 that formalized the pre-elections alliance.
The incumbent PPP/C launched their manifesto on Saturday at the Marriott Hotel pledging job creation among the priorities if elected.
