Alliance for Change (AFC) General Secretary David Patterson has signaled his readiness to contest to be leader of the party if nominated.
Only two days remain before the close of nominations for the AFC National Conference, to be held in just under two weeks, where the party’s members will vote on a leader for the next two years and whether to remain a part of the main opposition coalition with A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).
“All systems are in place. Nominations and motions have to be [submitted] by May 31st. Same date for the delegates’ submissions,” AFC General Secretary David Patterson told Sunday Stabroek.
Already, party leader Khemraj Ramjattan, who has rotated the leadership of the party with co-founder Raphael Trotman since the formation of the party, has said he would be contesting again for the post once he has been nominated.
“Nominations have not been submitted as yet, however the tradition in our party is that all positions are normally contested. I expect this to be the case this time around. Should I be nominated, I will not decline,” Patterson said.
For his part, Trotman has announced that he would not be accepting nominations as he does not plan to contest for any position at the conference. He said he believes the party needs new vigour and he also needs to focus on his health.
“I’m not planning on contesting for any positions. I attempted in 2019 not to run for any office, but was persuaded to stay on. This time my resolve is firmer to see my decision through. I believe the party needs refreshing and rejuvenating and even renewal, and having said so, I think I need to stand aside and act as a mentor. Additionally, I have my own medical recovery that I need to focus on,” he told this newspaper.
Ramjattan, meanwhile, reiterated that the position he held last month has not changed. “As I have said before, yes, I am open to running again,” he stated. .
“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,” he had told this newspaper last month.
He had also pointed out that in 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 believes that the conference will go smoothly and the decisions made will be sound and in the best interest of the party and by extension the people of Guyana. “We are preparing for a successful June 11th National Conference…,” he said, while outlining systems in place.
Patterson explained that the party has a membership committee in place that “will vet and ensure that the submitted delegates, are duly qualified.”
He said that “there is also a constitutional sub-committee in place who will review and ensure that all submitted motions are valid.”
Returning Officer for the elections will be former Minister of Agriculture Noel Holder, and according to Patterson, he “shall be aided by his selected team.”
The conference itself will be a hybrid one where there will be persons at the venue and others logged in virtually.
The General Secretary explained that ensuring the technical aspect is glitch free is “being worked on as we speak, so far no issues.” However, he said that they will keep fine tuning the process.
Deciding on the way forward
Patterson said the item that may engender the most input from delegates would the “Way Forward” resolution.
Asked about his views on the “way forward” for the party, Trotman like other executives who were contacted did not want to discuss the position publicly, even as he indicated that coalition politics is what Guyana needs.
“I shared my views in a document in January and would prefer those to be ventilated within the party and not publicly. History teaches us that coalition politics is best for Guyana but must be based on firm and honoured principles of mutual respect and accountability. If not, it is only worth the paper it is written on,” Trotman said.
He said that there are also two other documents on the way forward that the delegates and the in-coming executive “will have to consider and adopt or reject wholly, or in part.”
Two other executives who were contacted said that they believe that they should first engage in discussions of their views with party members than with the media.
“I will hold my views for the conference. I don’t feel I should be telling Stabroek News about how I feel about a decision the party should be making before telling the party. Let them hear it from the horse’s mouth,” one of them reasoned.
“Yes, I do have a view but I prefer to have that view aired among my fellow party members. This is a big decision and I don’t want to hear (name given) said this or that, even before we start having that conversation on if to stay in this coalition,” another noted.
The AFC was formed in 2005 by three Members of Parliament (MPs) who had left the respective political parties – Trotman, formerly of the People’s National Congress Reform, Ramjattan, formerly of the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic, and the late Sheila Holder, formerly of the Working People’s Alliance.
The party, seen as a viable alternative 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 opposition.
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 defected on the vote. And while the AFC once again joined with APNU to contest the 2020 polls, the coalition was defeated and left office after a contentious five-month long wait for the finalisation of the results.
Ramjattan has vehemently taken on critics who have argued that the party is no longer viable. Ramjattan, under whose leadership the party entered into the 2020 elections agreement with the APNU, has 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 recently told this newspaper.
