– Sources maintain account
THE small Alliance For Change (AFC) party yesterday denied reports of a meeting in Miami last week at which its leader, Mr. Raphael Trotman, disparaged his leadership rival and party Chairman, Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan.
In a press release, it claimed that the story reported yesterday by the Guyana Chronicle and the National Communications Network (NCN) was “completely fabricated”.
“There is absolutely no truth in the story whatsoever. Mr. Trotman was not in Florida on the day claimed by the state media, and neither were any meetings whatsoever held by him or any member of the party as falsely stated in the state media”, the AFC said.
But the Guyana Chronicle’s sources said they stand by their account of the Miami meeting at which Trotman spoke to a group of people.
Trotman and Ramjattan are in a leadership battle following the failure by the party’s top brass early last month to honour a rotation agreement that would have seen Ramjattan take over as AFC leader.
Party insiders said Trotman’s faction is insisting that Ramjattan is unsuitable to lead the AFC while the Ramjattan group is accusing the party’s prime movers of alienation tactics.
It was the Guyana Chronicle that last month first reported on the secret talks the AFC had started with the larger People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) on a possible opposition coalition for the 2011 general elections.
The Guyana Chronicle and NCN also broke the news that the AFC had hired controversial Barbados-based political consultant, Mr. Hartley Henry, to broker the coalition talks with the PNCR and others.
Media reports on the leadership also forced the AFC top brass to last week call a press conference at short notice to try to play down the internal wrangling, but party insiders said the crisis is still simmering.
Businessman Peter Ramsaroop, who recently resigned as AFC Chief Executive Officer and withdrew his membership of the party, joined Trotman at the Miami meeting with 11 other AFC supporters. Ramsaroop, a week ago, publicly expressed his displeasure at Ramjattan’s leadership.
Trotman said at a press conference last week that the party’s bid for an opposition alliance was not one of personalities but of principles and programmes.
He said the programme to take Guyana forward will first have to be outlined and persons will then fit themselves in.
Trotman is a former senior PNCR member and parliamentarian who defected to form his own party, while Ramjattan is a defector from the PPP.
The AFC is now seeking to merge with the PNCR after bitter differences earlier this year when Trotman accused Corbin of being in secret talks with President Bharrat Jagdeo on a shared governance agreement for the 2011 elections.
Trotman flatly declared then that the AFC was not discussing an alliance with the PNCR, but Corbin said the two parties had several meetings, discussions and consultations on the issue.