Giving the APNU+AFC a “mixed review” and apologising for its shortcomings while in office, APNU member the Working People’s Alliance(WPA) yesterday announced that it would remain in the governing coalition for the next elections and pledged to be active in ensuring that promises are kept.
“The WPA will play a more forceful role to ensure that the government holds true to promises made to the people,” WPA Executive David Hinds yesterday told a press conference.
He apologised for any wrongdoings of the coalition.
“We do share our fair share of responsibility for this. We are not shying away. We have one minister—our representative was always there when these decisions were or not made. We apologise for these shortcomings on behalf of the government,” Hinds added.
Asked how the party intends to hold the government accountable this time around, Hinds pointed out that it will be through people pressure as the party was working at the grassroots to educate people about the power they hold and their role in oversight of government.
In a statement, which was said by Hinds, the party said that it “intends to be more proactive in and out of government should the Coalition win. We intend to continue to balance our independence and traditional political values with our responsibility as part of a plural government. The party has already signed on to the Coalition’s Core Principles, but given our experiences during the first term, WPA has decided to request alterations to its formal engagement within a Coalition government.”
The party yesterday said that after careful evaluation of APNU+AFC’s term in office, it believed it earned a mixed review and it outlined the reason for its conclusion.
“The WPA has concluded that the government’s performance has been mixed. The enormous challenges it inherited in 2015 and the fact it has not been in office long enough are factors that must be taken into consideration in any serious assessment of the Coalition’s tenure. However, WPA feels that there have been mistakes, some of which could have been avoided. These have contributed in no small way to a weakening of the government and to the emergence of some degree of alienation among its support base. First, at the policy level, the government has failed to satisfactorily tackle some of the structural problems that negatively affect the poor and the powerless in the society. Second, we believe that the government’s political strategies and tactics have allowed room for a resurgence of the PPP as a viable competitor for office at the coming election. Third, the lack of ongoing contact with its support base has been an error that should have been avoided. Fourth, the decision not to pursue some of its crucial campaign promises has raised doubts about the Coalition’s ability to keep promises to voters. Fifth, the WPA is dissatisfied with the overall management of the coalition, which we feel has contributed greatly to the outcomes cited above. The stubborn refusal to meaningfully engage Coalition partners in decision-making has been the root cause of the government’s less than adequate performance. Maximum leadership and the limiting of decision making to one organ are inconsistent with the principles of coalition politics,” Hinds read from the prepared statement.
But despite what the party believes are mistakes by the coalition, it feels that the government has done enough to warrant a second term and will stay on and is asking the public for its support also.
Both Hinds and WPA member Tacuma Ogunseye listed a number of areas where they believed the coalition desires credit, including a war against narco-trafficking, implementing a sugar policy, bringing an end to phantom killings and restoring a sense of pride in Guyanese.
“We have identified some important areas of democratic governance and management of the political economy that are comforting and have led to a strengthening of the country as a whole. WPA is convinced that a multi-party government is a superior option for management of the coming oil and gas economy than a one-party government. The Coalition is in theory, if not in practice, one step closer to the desired Government of National Unity. Towards this end, WPA views the Coalition as the political force that offers the better chance for the realisation of our party’s vision for Guyana’s development and for true liberation from the clutches of underdevelopment,” Hinds noted.
Turning to the recent ruling of the Chief Justice dealing with house-to-house registration, the WPA stated that it welcomes the decision that process is lawful.
“Even as we note concerns in some quarters about aspects of the ruling, WPA urges all parties and organisations to respect the court’s conclusions on the major issues—the house to house registration and the setting of an election date. The WPA has always felt that this recent move to the court was nothing short of “legal and constitutional gymnastics” aimed at the larger PPP agenda of frustrating credible elections. The CCJ’s ruling and orders were very clear. The court does not have the constitutional right to interfere with the process by which an election date is determined—that is a matter for the president in consultation with GECOM. We salute the court for not tampering with the CCJ’s ruling,” the party stated
“This ruling is hopefully the final blow against the PPP’s effort to get the court to become unnecessarily entangled in the country’s politics. We urge GECOM to deliberate on the court’s recommendations and proceed with the preparation for elections in a timely manner. WPA again wishes to congratulate GECOM for not bowing to pressure and for keeping the HtH registration timeline within the ambit of the constitution and CCJ’s guideline,” it added.
Hinds said that with house-to-house registration continuing, he forecasts that it would be completed in a short time and elections could be had “sometime in December.”
