Former Alliance for Change (AFC) parliamentarian and APNU+AFC’s former Region 10 representative, Audwin Rutherford yesterday tendered his resignation from the party contending that it has lost its way and has been subsumed by the People’s National Congress Reform.
“Please accept my resignation from the AFC as a member of the NEC and party with immediate effect (11th, October 2030),” the letter seen by the Stabroek News states.
Rutherford confirmed to this newspaper that he had resigned and said that the letter spoke for itself.
“I would have joined the party shortly after its formation, because the party principles and vision coincided with mine. I was comfortable with my decision then as I am comfortable with my decision now. This decision is after much consultation with my family and friends, who all fully understand,” the letter stated.
“The AFC seems to have no independent (voice) – the party has lost its way and seems comfortable being subservient to PNCR. This attitude is particularly pronounced in Region 10. To compound matters the executives of the party were prepared to not have the Regional Vice Chairman in Region 10 – this posture I think is disrespectful to, particularly, the long serving members. As such, I am actually pleased that the PNCR true to their unprincipled coalition attitude refused to allow the AFC the Regional vice chairman position in Region 4… I wish you more forward together, alone!” the letter added.
A split between the AFC and APNU over the election of the Vice Chairman of the Region Four Regional Democratic Council (RDC) resulted in David Patterson tendering his resignation as general secretary of the AFC late last month.
Adamant that their coalition partner APNU reneged on agreements in their revamped Cummingsburg Accord agreement, the AFC has set up a committee to determine its next move.
The committee will be submitting its report within 10 days, thereafter another National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting will be held on October 18, 2020. The NEC, with the agreement of the General Secretary has deferred a decision on the resignations to this later date, the Party had explained in a statement.
The revised Cummingsburg Accord that the AFC refers to as the guiding principles behind power sharing between the two sides has never been made public.
Signed in secret, the AFC Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan had told this newspaper it was “just a tweaking of the old accord with some minor changes in the number of seats and so on”.
Since it formed a coalition with APNU in 2015, the AFC has faced criticisms for what some of its supporters felt was its loss of independence and this was exacerbated by the party’s nonchalant stance on the five-month political impasse that saw blatant attempts to rig the March 2nd General Elections in favour of APNU+AFC.
After finally agreeing to general elections on March 2nd this year, APNU+AFC was seen as preventing the declaration of a final result for months as more legal challenges and a recount of all the votes followed.
During that period, AFC executive and former Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin had expressed his dissatisfaction that the AFC did not condemn the activities of District 4 Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, who tried on March 5th to fraudulently give the elections to the former governing coalition, APNU+AFC, knowing that it had not seen, much less analysed, any of the Statements of Poll (SOPs) that suggested the win.
