President David Granger yesterday said that talks with the leader of the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) Lenox Shuman have been “preliminary exploratory talks” as they look for common ground and areas of convergence.
“The policy of the A Partnership of National Unity is that we are inclusionary and we welcome other parties who share our objectives to develop Guyana, Guyana’s children, Guyana’s environment and Mr. Shuman has given me assurance that there are areas of convergence between the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) and what he thinks the APNU stands” for, the President told reporters yesterday following the accreditation of the new German Ambassador to Guyana, Ute König.
Stabroek News reported yesterday that Shuman has had discussions with APNU about a possible coalescing but that no decision has yet been made as he is still to do a “a final analysis”.
“At the launch of the party, we had sent out a letter to all of the other parties to have talks with them. I got responses and have met with ANUG, FED UP and APNU…so yes, we have had talks with APNU,” Shuman told Stabroek News on Tuesday.
“Everything needs a final analysis. There are a lot of considerations to be taken…,” he added.
Yesterday, President Granger made it clear that the two parties have not come to any agreement but that Shuman is convinced that there is a wide area of convergence between the partnership and his parties. Granger pointed out that APNU is already made up of five parties and the Alliance For Change (AFC) which is not in the partnership is the sixth party in the coalition.
And when asked about the next meeting of the LJP and APNU, the President said they have not worked out a timetable but that such a meeting could happen in the month of October.
He also gave an update on talks between governing coalition partners APNU and the AFC. He said that the first of three stages has been successfully completed. That stage dealt with the agreement between the two sides on certain core principles. They are now in the second stage where they are discussing ways for reviewing or remodelling the Cummingsburg Accord of February 14, 2015 which launched the coalition and the final stage will deal with the publication and promulgation of their manifesto, after which their campaign will be launched.
“We are now in the second of three stages…and that’s where we are. We are multitasking, APNU is looking after its relations with the Alliance For Change as well the proposed relations with the Liberty and Justice Party,” President Granger said.
Asked about who will be the Prime Ministerial candidate for the coalition, the President said that one of the core principles recognises the role of the President in making certain types of appointments and “it would be premature to make an announcement on that, it is subject to discussions between the APNU and the AFC.” He said that it is not something that has been discussed and as he pointed out before they are looking at “principles before personalities”. He said they would come to personalities in due course, adding that they are not in a hurry.
The AFC earlier this year elected Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan as its prime ministerial candidate but from the public utterances of President Granger it is not clear that his election will translate into him holding that position when the two parties launch their election campaign as a coalition.
Analysts have argued that the AFC can no longer bring significant votes to the coalition and that APNU is looking elsewhere for a prime ministerial candidate.
