MORE signs emerged yesterday of a looming showdown in the Alliance For Change (AFC) camp over the contentious issue of the party’s leadership rotation agreement.
The party is meeting tomorrow to make a decision on this thorny issue but the meeting is likely to deteriorate into a power brawl.
A source close to the AFC Executive said the Raphael Trotman/Khemraj Ramjattan factions are very emotional about the issue which can overspill into a ruckus tomorrow.
The source further indicated that while most people seem to favour Trotman as party leader and presidential candidate, Ramjattan’s minority faction in the party is concerned about the alienation tactics already being employed at the top level.
The Trotman faction is being led by Sheila Holder and David Patterson while the Ramjattan faction is receiving support from Gerhard Ramsaroop and Tarron Khemraj.
The source revealed that Ramjattan’s faction is worried about a possible deviation from the rotation leadership agreement made earlier at the executive level of the party which would ensure that Ramjattan and not Trotman is the party’s presidential candidate for next year’s general elections.
“Ramjattan has got a challenge on his hand with the perception that he (Ramjattan) is the AFC ‘water boy’ being made to do selective tasks while Trotman is being glorified as the charismatic leader of the party”, the source said.
The small AFC is apparently in rough leadership seas similar to those that washed the main opposition People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) into deep trouble.
Trotman is a former senior PNCR member who defected to form his own party while Ramjattan is a defector from the governing People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
Another PNCR defector, Peter Ramsaroop, was up to recently a senior member of the AFC leadership but he resigned and is being investigated for allegedly spying through concealed cameras on a teenaged female tenant in an apartment building he owns in Queenstown, Georgetown.