THE Alliance For Change (AFC) could split into two parties under the strain of an escalating leadership crisis, according to party insiders.

It failed to resolve the leadership impasse after a one-day meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC) which went into late Saturday night and the insiders said it is now clear that current leader Raphael Trotman is being favoured over chairman Khemraj Ramjattan as its presidential candidate for the 2011 general elections.

Ramjattan’s backers have been pushing for him to replace Trotman at the helm of the party in keeping with a leadership rotation agreement but the NEC meeting failed to break the deadlock at the Saturday meeting.

The party said in a press release that its regional and international groups have now been officially mandated to nominate candidates for the presidential and prime ministerial positions, after which the NEC will make recommendations to its national conference scheduled for later in the year.
According to AFC sources, the Ramjattan faction is not comfortable with this development and his backers are exploring options, including forming a breakaway party.
After its Saturday meeting, the AFC said the NEC also “reaffirmed its total commitment to forging compatible alliances”.
The AFC has been split into two rival camps backing Trotman and Ramjattan in a leadership division closely mirroring that which has left the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) in disarray.
The PNCR has been split into several camps over repeated challenges to Mr. Robert Corbin’s leadership and the AFC, which emerged from Trotman’s defection from the PNCR, is heading down the same road, sources projected.
At the centre of the growing AFC rift is whether Ramjattan should assume leadership of the party and be its presidential candidate for next year’s general elections in keeping with an agreement on rotating the leadership.
AFC insiders said Trotman’s backers want him to stay at the helm and lead the party into the elections but those supporting Ramjattan are opposing the bid.
Another senior party member, Michael Carrington, last week announced that he too wanted to be presidential candidate.
The NEC said the AFC came out of Saturday’s meeting committed to the “principle of rotation of its top two candidates for the 2011 election bid.”
It said that in the interest of maintaining ethnic harmony within the party, it also agreed to put in place a standing panel to deal with issues related to ethnic relations, diversity, ethics and compliance for members within the AFC.
The panel will adhere to the AFC’s founding principles and promote sustainable unification of all Guyanese people, it said.
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.