CHAIRMAN of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan- one of the parties in the governing coalition- on Tuesday rubbished a decision by his party’s Canada Chapter to pull out until the AFC denounces President David Granger’s recent appointment of Retired Justice James Patterson as Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

“Unless and until all these resolutions are complied with in full, AFC-Canada hereby gives notice that it has withdrawn its membership from association with and support of the Alliance For Change party,” Secretary of AFC-Canada, Laurence Williams said in a letter to Ramjattan, AFC Leader Raphael Trotman and the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) after a meeting held last Friday.

While AFC-Canada said it is no longer associated with The Alliance For Change party or any other political party, for the time being, it said it would “continue to support the Guyanese people’s quest and struggle for national unity, democracy, transparency, accountability and peace and progress.”
Ramjattan however told Demerara Waves Online News: “We are not going to retract on that GECOM decision at all,” adding that the AFC was a liberal democratic party and members could do as they are best advised.

Williams said in a letter to Ramjattan, AFC Leader, Raphael Trotman and the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) that the Canadian chapter recently met and expressed grave concerns about James Patterson’s appointment. Williams said his party’s group in Canada has agreed that if the party does not publicly call for the GECOM Chairman’s appointment to be rescinded and for one of the 18 persons nominated by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo to be appointed, the group will withdraw from the party.

However, Ramjattan vowed that the AFC’s leadership would not give into the Canadian chapter’s demand for the AFC to publicly denounce the GECOM Chairman’s appointment. “Absolutely not. We aren’t going to do that because we have made our decision and our decision is grounded on a whole lot of political history and facts in relationship to why we did what we did and you would appreciate that Jagdeo is not an easy political animal and we appreciate that it is a presidential choice,” he said.

Other resolutions, Williams referred to, are the need to rewrite the political agreement between the AFC and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) to ensure legal enforceability with specific time limits for its implementation and the immediate commencement of constitutional reform and the enactment of a reformed constitution before the next general election. A Constitutional Reform  Bill has been tabled in the House to pave the way for countrywide consultations.

The AFC Chairman, however, cast some doubt over who attended the AFC-Canada meeting and said recently he learnt that former members of the opposition People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) North American front-group, Association of Concerned Guyanese (ACG), had expressed an interest in joining AFC- Canada. Williams said the meeting was held in North York, Toronto

“If that is their position, well then we’ll just do have our work again. Fall-outs like this is [sic] always part of the political landscape because these are fellows who had really worked hard for the party,” Ramjattan added. He said he was not worried that the AFC would now lose significant financial resources with the withdrawal of AFC-Canada because he was “absolutely certain” that major financiers would remain with the party.