“Small but good” is how presidential candidate of A New and United Guyana (ANUG), Ralph Ramkarran describes the meetings being held around the country by his party.
“Our meetings are very small. We don’t have money to advertise, we don’t have people to hand out leaflets and we don’t have persons who can visit the communities to announce. We are a small party so we go to market areas where people are located,” he told Stabroek News in an interview.
According to Ramkarran while every meeting has had a rather “sparse” attendance the response from those who do show up suggests that ANUG “will do well enough” at the March 2 General and Regional Elections (GRE).
The response from the public, he explained, has been good enough to indicate that people are interested in what they are saying, and suggests that even if his party doesn’t make it into the National Assembly another small party might just make it.
They hope to harness enough votes from those disenchanted with the two main parties to act as a power broker in the next assembly and advocate for constitutional reform leading to shared governance.
Ramkarran has explained that the party’s manifesto, which he said would be published next week, clearly explains the nature of this shared governance
“We detailed the nature of the government we want and are proposing for the Guyanese people; the type of structure we have in mind,” he said.
The party has repeatedly said that their intention is to have a Government in which all the major political parties will serve.
“We advocate for the complete separation of powers between the executive and legislature and a constituency system with a mechanism for proportionality,” they have explained.
They had also said that their intention was to release their manifesto earlier than the other contesting parties, to give people the time to analyze it and question its members on the content when they are on countrywide outreaches.
With just 19 days to go until Election Day the manifesto has not been released but the party has visited the West Coast, Linden and Kwakwani and has meetings scheduled for Lusignan and Plaisance in the coming days.
As part of the country’s first “joinder of lists” ANUG, if it gains enough votes, will have a chance to exercise the “mechanism of proportionality” it has been promoting as according to Ramkarran the seat or seats won by the joint lists will be shared “proportionally”.
ANUG, The New Movement (TNM) and the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) have agreed to combine their lists for the purpose of earning a seat in the assembly so while each party will contest the election individually once tabulated the votes earned will be combined.
Ramkarran explained that each party is guaranteed a position in the assembly proportionate to the number of votes secured.
If a single seat is won then each party is guaranteed a seat in the assembly for an amount of time proportionate to the percentage of votes won.
An example of this application is if one party contributes 2,000 votes for a seat worth 7,000 votes then that party will sit in the assembly for 16 months; the amount of time equal to the proportion of the votes contributed.
This is a variation on a model used by independent group, Benschop for Mayor at the Georgetown City Council. Following the 2016 Local Government Elections (LGE) the group decided that each year a new member would hold the single seat won by the grouping.
With its main goal being shared executive governance to end decades of ethnic insecurity, ANUG entered the political fray on January 18, 2019 with what it said was a legally enforceable pledge not to coalesce with any of the major parties to secure a role in government.
“In order to demonstrate that we are not just another political party and that we are serious about what we say, we now make two main commitments. (1) Our party undertakes that it will never enter a coalition with any other political party or any of its members for the purpose of securing a role in government. (2) From the first day of taking constitutional office, or being able to otherwise influence governmental policy, we will work to establish shared executive power and within one month of being able to do so we will set about the constitutional reform process to make the necessary changes in the constitution,” the group said in a statement that accompanied its launching at Moray House in Georgetown.
“We will not join either of the political parties to go into government,” Ramkarran, said at the launch.
