A date for the AFC’s next congress will be set on Saturday with key issues such as who will replace current leader Raphael Trotman and whether Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo will go into upcoming elections in his current capacity, on the table for the congress to decide.
“I rather suspect lots of issues are going to be raised there. Many members will have that [party elections] as a big issue. I don’t know what decisions will be taken…but definitely the election of our office-bearers, leader, general secretary , chairman, vice chairman, treasurer and all will be done there and the executive of the party,” AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan told a press conference held at the party’s Kitty headquarters yesterday.
“At this stage, we are not there in relation to that. All of that will have to be decided at a national conference,” he said, when asked about Nagamootoo’s possible replacement or return.
On Saturday, the AFC will host a National Executive Council meeting which Ramjattan said will be expanded as the party will “ask invitees from the regional divisions, management committees and also certain people from the interior areas to come out and give us their take” on current issues.
“It is going to be a broad consultative arrangement and hearing of the views from all across the country, so that we can start the preparation for getting our groups back and in order for 2019,” he said.
Party members, according to Ramjattan, will review the political situation, especially the implications of the December 21st no-confidence motion where one of the AFC’s parliamentarians voted with the opposition PPP/C, triggering the fall of the David Granger-led APNU+AFC government.
And even as he stressed that the 2015 Cummingsburg Accord the party signed in 2013 with APNU would not expire until 2020, Ramjattan could not say if it will be kept as is or be modified for the next elections.
“The Cummingsburg Accord is still very much in existence. It is still valid…for 60 months and yes indeed, there might be need for further fine-tuning and certain developments recently, I guess there will be need on both sides to deal with major issues and preparations for the next elections and all of that,” he said.
Asked what areas he believes the party would want reworked, he replied, “I don’t want to put in public what we are going to be engaged on. It might murky the waters and might not be the most prudent telling the press ‘well I going and negotiate this boss’. It is not right.”
In a close race that saw then incumbent Ramjattan losing by two votes, Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman was elected leader of the AFC back in January 2017.
Nagamootoo had then said that he would not be contesting for any of the top party posts, saying that he wanted to make way for a new generation of leaders. Nagamootoo was chosen as the Prime Ministerial candidate under the Cummingsburg Accord, on which the APNU+AFC coalition rode to victory in the 2015 general elections.
Among the terms of the Cummingsburg Accord were:
APNU will nominate the Presidential candidate and AFC will nominate the Prime Ministerial candidate.
The AFC is assured of 12 seats in the National Assembly
In the construct of a new
government, the APNU will be allocated one Vice President and AFC two Vice Presidents, both of whom will be members of the Cabinet.
In reflecting the thinking and commitment to and for future constitutional reform, it was agreed that the Presidency will be reorganised along the following lines;
1) The President as Head of State, Head of Government, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and shall have responsibility for the appointment of Constitutional Agencies and Commissions with the required and agreed democratic mechanisms of consultation and appoint.
2) – Foreign Affairs, International Relations and Non-Commercial Treaties.
3) – National Security Policy, the Defence Board, the Joint Intelligence Committee, the Guyana Defence Force et al.
The President will delegate the following responsibilities to the Prime Minister;
1) – Domestic national affairs and chairing Cabinet;
2) – Recommending Ministerial appointments and providing the organisational structures of Ministries for the approval of the President;
3) – Appointment of Head of Agencies and Non-Constitutional Commissions with the required and agreed democratic mechanisms of consultation and appoint;
4) – Domestic Security (Home Affairs)
The parties further agreed that Cabinet positions will be allocated on a 60/40 basis between APNU and the AFC respectively. But after the coalition had entered office in May 2015, there were immediate concerns that the AFC’s leading member in the government was being sidelined in favour of APNU’s Minister of State Joseph Harmon. Though he was number two in government, Nagamootoo had few portfolio responsibilities while Harmon’s portfolio was multifarious and kept expanding. There were also concerns in a number of other areas.
In recent weeks, there have been blistering attacks on the AFC for what critics have said is its failure to rein in its main coalition partner, APNU. The AFC’s position on the layoff of thousands of sugar workers and the unilateral appointment of a GECOM Chairman have also been criticised.
