FOR all their double-speak, the leaders of the APNU/AFC coalition are evidently running away from a live televised and radio broadcast debate ahead of the coming May 11 National and Local Government elections.

This much could also be obvious to their own thinking supporters.
The litany of excuses, rationalisations and their recurring pathetic semantics — as reported in various sections of the local media — all point to Mr. David Granger, the retired GDF Brigadier and presidential candidate of the PNC-controlled APNU plus AFC alliance, revealing deep reservations against exposing his intellectual capabilities even for just a single live TV/Radio Presidential debate.

The local Private Sector Commission (PSC) and accredited diplomats representing foreign Governments in Guyana, as well as some home-based influential Guyanese have already gone public with their disappointments over the PNC/AFC coalition’s refusal to participate in even a single pre-election Presidential debate.

As a Caribbean journalist who has covered myriad of national elections across CARICOM, including Guyana’s, the rationale by the PNC/AFC election alliance to refuse to participate in the presidential debate — unless there is a similar one between the respective Prime Ministerial candidate of the Opposition and governing PPP/C, namely Mr. Moses Nagamootoo and Ms. Elisabeth Harper — has NO precedents in this Region.

For a start, under Guyana’s unique governance system in CARICOM with an Executive President and his/her Prime Ministerial running-mate under the PR electoral system for a 65-member Parliament, this is the FIRST occasion, as far as I can recall, that a major Opposition party, or alliance of parties, seems desperate to avoid a live televised/radio presidential debate UNLESS there is also one for prime ministerial running-mates.

PERTINENT QUESTION
A question of relevance is whether Granger, the PNC’s (APNU) leader and Opposition alliance Presidential candidate for the May 11 elections, has fallen victim to the demands of, and manoeuvrings by, the AFC’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Nagamootoo? He is still recalled as a once rabid PPP so-called “firebrand” now jostling with faithful PNC ‘comrades’ to show front-seat militancy in favour of the hastily put together (PNC)APNU/AFC coalition for next month’s crucial elections.
Regrettably, for Nagamootoo, he has already said more than enough publicly to betray his hunger for personal power. This would include his abusive diatribe against President Donald Ramotar’s Prime Ministerial running-mate, Elisabeth Harper. She is widely regarded as a most decent and competent public servant during many changing PNC and PPP/C-led administrations over many years, and well respected by regional and foreign diplomats who had to deal with her at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
She is certainly NO ‘yard-fowl’ politician, as Barbadians would wryly refer to some of their own – in and out of elections. For his part, the APNU/AFC Presidential candidate seems locked into a political arrangement from which he cannot now escape until AFTER May 11.

ELISABETH HARPER
For now, the AFC’s Nagamootoo should perhaps consult with even a handful of the many decent and informed Guyanese who are really familiar with the integrity and competence of Mrs. Elisabeth Harper, the noted public servant who has chosen to be elected as Prime Minister of a new Guyana Government.
In the meanwhile, among the diplomatic voices passionately raised in favour of at least one live pre-election presidential debate was that of the United Kingdom’s Gregory Quinn.
In reflecting on the issues of relevance he was quite firm in declaring: “It is very clear that the Presidential debate should go ahead, regardless…”
Mr. Quinn was simply voicing a sentiment with which other accredited foreign diplomats familiar with multi-party parliamentary politics in our Caribbean Community, including Guyana, would easily share.
A question of relevance is why the reluctance, or fear, by the PNC-controlled APNU plus AFC alliance over a live broadcast Presidential debate? Could it be their own record of obstructions in Parliament that affected some quite high profile, legitimate fiscal, economic and social development projects and programmes during the last Parliament?
We should soon find out!
(Rickey Singh is a noted Guyana-born, Barbados-based Caribbean journalist)
Analysis by Rickey Singh

A question of relevance is why the reluctance, or fear, by the PNC-controlled APNU plus AFC alliance over a live broadcast Presidential debate?