Incumbent leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Khemraj Ramjattan has confirmed that if nominated he is up for contesting once again for the top post of the party at its upcoming National Conference, which will also decide on its future as part of the former governing coalition with APNU.
The AFC recently announced that its National Executive Committee (NEC) had decided that its delayed national conference would be held on Saturday, June 11, 2022.
The important biennial conference was deferred last year owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the conference, the posts of Leader, Chairman, the Deputy Chairman, General Secretary and Treasurer are among those that are to be contested. In addition, the party has said the forum would also see the election of ten members representing each of the 10 administrative regions and four members who represent the Diaspora who are part of NEC.
On Saturday, Ramjattan told Sunday Stabroek that if he is nominated by the party’s membership for the leadership, then he would accept.
“I rather suspect that a lot of people will be contesting. We are a very liberal democratic party and depending on where the nomination is coming from, because people in our party [would make nominations for the leadership] and if none comes from any groups or any of the regions well certainly you wouldn’t be contesting.
“In our AFC politics nominations must come from the regions or districts or groups in or around the country and once they do that you become a competitor [for these posts],” Ramjattan said.
However, at least one current leader is undecided about once again running for a leadership post. Vice-Chair Cathy Hughes told Sunday Stabroek that she is yet to decide on contesting.
“I think we have a lot of very capable young people that you see [us] mentoring and nurturing and I haven’t made a final decision. The AFC will always be a part of me and I will always be involved. It has been a long haul. It has been 17 years now and certainly, there are so many other things as I [get] older that I want to do and accomplish as well,” she said.
The party has not yet announced a nomination day and according to Ramjattan, that decision is yet to be taken by the current executive. He explained that the date would be announced after the committee meets and agrees but he assured that there would be enough time for the regional factions of the party to file their nominations.
The incumbent leader added that once the nominations are filed then the party would begin informing the nominees followed by preparation of the ballots.
Asked what would happen if he is not nominated for a post, Ramjattan said “If there are no nominations for me, well [that’s] fine [and it means] I will be out as the leader. I won’t want to nominate myself but you will have other people being nominated for leader, other people being nominated for national executive and it all depends on how the nominations come in from the various groups and so on.”
At the last AFC national conference, Ramjattan was nominated for the office of Party Leader by almost every regional group in the party.
Coalition or no coalition
The AFC was formed in 2005 by three Members of Parliament (MPs) who had left their various political parties – Ramjattan (People’s Progressive Party/ Civic), Shelia Holder (Working People’s Alliance) and Raphael Trotman (People’s National Congress Reform).
The party, seen as a viable alternative an avenue for citizens that were dissatisfied with the leadership of the two dominant parties, the PPP/C and PNCR, contested the 2006 general elections and won six of the 65 seats in the National Assembly. It increased that number to seven at the next elections in 2011.
The 2011 elections were critical in the sense that the AFC proved to be the “balance” in the House after the ruling PPP/C managed to garner the seat of government but the combined opposition – APNU and AFC – held the parliamentary majority. During the life of that National, Assembly Guyana saw government spending being slashed tremendously by the combined.
In 2015, when elections were called, the AFC formally joined with the APNU to form a coalition to contest. The APNU+AFC coalition went on to win the 2015 elections and the AFC was given 12 seats in the House.
However, the coalition was defeated by a motion of no-confidence in December of 2018 after AFC MP Charrandass Persaud voted in favour with then opposition PPP/C. The party once again combined forces with APNU to contest the 2020 polls but the coalition was defeated and left office after a contentious five-month long wait for the finalization of the results.
Since 2015, members of the AFC have been accusing the APNU of sidelining the party, with critics even declaring it “dead”. The 2020 elections saw the party’s seat in the House also being reduced to 9 under the coalition.
On Saturday, Ramjattan, under whose leadership the party entered into the 2020 agreement with the APNU, argued that the AFC is not “dead”.
“It is very unique in the Caribbean what the AFC has done and a lot of people don’t pay attention to that and they feel that we are dead and we have to prove that is not true. That it is just debasing political remarks being made by everybody,” he said.
As it relates to the party’s future with the APNU, Ramjattan said that would be decided by the delegates at the conference in June.
“We are expecting in the vicinity of 300 delegates and another 75-plus observers, in accordance with our constitution, from all across the regions and overseas…big on the agenda would be the way forward document and that will be deliberated on at that national conference,” he said.
When asked about what the document contains, Ramajattan explained that it remains an internal communication of the party and as such he cannot release its contents. However, he did say that it addresses the AFC’s future in the coalition.
“The document outlines what will be our approach in future coalition arrangement – if we do have a coalition arrangement or whether we come out of a coalition arrangement. That is how simply we put it.
It is an important party document and it has some strong arguments which we had discussed and deliberated on at a previous National Executive meeting. That will be heard and there will be other documents on whether we should have reforms in our AFC constitution and so,” he related.
He noted that the conference serves as a time where the AFC looks at its operations and decides on the way forward. He added that in the past there have been motions tabled at the conference that steered the party’s course and he is anticipating those at the upcoming one.
Continuation
Ramjattan has been in the driving seat of the AFC for a number of years. Asked about how he views his leadership, he said, “It is a continuation of what I have started and trying as best as possible to get the parity’s regions up to scratch, getting our messages across in the various social media and newspapers with press conferences and trying as best as possible within Parliament and with our nine parliamentarians to offer whatever assistance the younger members needed.”
He added that the next step would be dictated at the conference when the National Executive Committee would be given its mandate from the delegates.
“So there will be motions coming from all the regions as to what we should be doing, what measures we should take to ensure the continued support of all,” he said.
Ramjattan posited that his time at the helm has proved to be successful as the party has grown and continues to grow.
