…Lawrence says coalition alive and well
…optimistic that thorny issues will be resolved amicably

By Svetlana Marshall
REBUFFING claims that the negotiation on the revised Cummingsburg Accord is now stalled over the naming of a Prime Ministerial Candidate, Volda Lawrence, the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) lead negotiator, said if the APNU and the Alliance For Change cannot strike a compromise at the negotiating table, the matter will be referred to the parties’ leaders for a resolution.

Lawrence addressed the issue hours after the AFC had reported that talks had broken down because the matter of naming the Prime Ministerial Candidate had been repeatedly deferred without any plausible explanation. The AFC is maintaining that it must, in accordance with the existing accord, nominate the Prime Ministerial Candidate, and while the APNU has not rejected the proposal in revising the document, there has been no consensus on the matter.

Lawrence, who spoke to reporters at her Ministry of Public Health Office, said, contrary to reports, the negotiation, continues. “From the APNU’s standpoint, we don’t see the talks as being stalled at all,” she said.

It was explained that in establishing guiding principles ahead of the negotiation, the two sides agreed that if, during the negotiation, they cannot agree on an issue after extensive deliberations, the matter would be “parked” and other issues would be addressed. At a later stage, it is expected that the controversial matters would come up for discussion with the hope of finding a common ground, the APNU lead negotiator said. “If after discussions we still, as a team, on both sides cannot find common ground, then these matters will be deferred to the two leaders,” Lawrence further explained.

In the case of the Prime Ministerial Candidate, Lawrence said the matter has been “parked,” but assured that once the AFC’s lead negotiator, David Patterson, returns to Guyana, a meeting would be held to discuss the way forward.

The APNU lead negotiator is hopeful that both sides will be able to strike a compromise to allow for a draft proposal of the revised Cummingsburg Accord to be sent to the Leader of the APNU – President David Granger and the Leader of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan. Failure to compromise on the matters at hand, however, would result in the issues being referred to both leaders for a resolution, Lawrence said.

In response to a question on AFC’s position that Ramjattan must be the Prime Ministerial Candidate, Lawrence said the alliance’s approach in this instance can affect the outcome of the negotiation. “It is a negotiation, and you don’t come into a negotiation that you are sticking to this and sticking to that, you have to find that common ground,” she said.
Nonetheless, she remains optimistic that the matter would soon be resolved. “I am quite certain that with the two issues, we will be able to work together to find that common ground and if not, we have that opportunity to send it forward to the leaders,” she posited.
She added, “We are no longer at the embryonic stage of the relationship, rather one would term us as duly married, and so I would say to you that we have every confidence in the APNU that between the APNU team and the AFC team, that we will be able to resolve these matters, and if we can’t resolve these matters we will send them up to the leaders.”
According to Lawrence, the negotiating teams have made significant progress in addressing other components of the accord, even those, that had proven to be a challenge. “We have had amicable and interesting discussions over the meetings which we have had on all the matters. There were other matters which were parked and are no longer parked because we have been able to find consensus and move forward and we are certain that we will be able to find consensus on these two matters, and be able to present to the two Leaders a draft revised accord in a soon as possible time,” Lawrence said. “We see ourselves in a partnership; we want to ensure that partnership continues. We believe that we still have that opportunity,” Lawrence told reporters.

Notwithstanding the current misunderstanding, Lawrence said supporters of the coalition can be assured that the progress will be made in addressing the issues.

“I want to say to all of our supporters, those of the APNU and the AFC, that this coalition is alive and well, and like in any family, there are times when you have to stop and think again… and I think that we have proven over the last four years that together we can move this country forward. Together we bring different views, and those views are all towards one objective and that is to ensure that we develop Guyana,” Lawrence reassured the coalition supporters.