The Justice For All Party (JFAP) today disclosed that it had withdrawn from A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), the key constituent of the former governing coalition, APNU+AFC.
APNU – comprised of five parties with the PNCR being the main component – has been roiled by internal dissent in the aftermath of its defeat at the March 2nd general elections and particularly after the swearing in of the new PPP/C government on August 2nd. Another member, the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) withdrew last month.
A JFAP letter to PNCR Leader David Granger which was dated September 1st and signed by its General Secretary, Savitree Singh Sharma did not give any specific reason for the decision to leave but said that “…Guyana’s political landscape is changing significantly and it demands a re-examination of roles and relationships”
Last month, JFAP had complained of being ignored in the selection of APNU+AFC MPs for the new parliament. No seat was allocated to the JFAP.
Singh Sharma had told Stabroek News then that the party had been completely sidelined.
“We feel that we have been used…and at this point we can see no reason for sticking with them but we will consider our options before acting,” she said.
According to Sharma the last meeting of APNU that they are aware of occurred on August 5 but they were not invited.
“We made a statement calling for the party (APNU+AFC) to concede (the elections) and end the impasse which lasted for five months…that statement appears to have helped them to decide to keep us out,” she posited, adding that the party had already been marginalized and ignored.
“If they (PNCR) did not coalesce they would not have been in office. They needed us and the other small parties for the crossover vote but as soon as they won we became window dressing. We were not even invited to the inauguration. At no time at were smaller parties involved in decision making. We were shut out,” Sharma said.
She further explained that though there was an agreement that each of the smaller parties would have one seat the PNCR appears to be hogging as many APNU seats as they can.
It had been reported that APNU Leader Granger was seeking to have each party prove a certain volume of membership before they could be allowed to occupy a seat but Sharma noted that they were never asked to provide any information.
“At no time at all were we asked anything. In 2011 we had the votes. Mr (CN) Sharma had the following. He has since gotten sick and is not as active but the reality is when he said he doesn’t want cardboard parties it’s because they want all the seats for the PNCR. They don’t need or want us anymore,” she concluded.
The WPA wrote to former President Granger on August 19 telling him that it was withdrawing as a member of APNU due to repeated “violations of the principles governing coalition politics” by the PNCR.
According to a letter made public by the WPA and signed by executive Tacuma Ogunseye, the PNCR has acted unilaterally since the coalition victory in 2015.
“Decisions affecting the APNU have been made and continue to be made in the name of the constituent parties without consultations…we have had to live with PNC’s decisions being imposed on the rest of the APNU,” Ogunseye lamented, adding that these actions persist although the Coalition is now out of power. He went on to note that since the party is convinced that there will be no significant changes within the APNU they feel they can no longer remain a member of the coalition.
“The time has come when the WPA is forced to draw a line in the sand and say that enough is enough,” he stressed.
