THE bid for an electoral coalition between the small Alliance For Change (AFC) party and the older major Opposition People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) has collapsed, well-placed sources said yesterday.
The sources said there have been sharp divisions in the AFC leadership over an alliance with the PNCR for next year’s elections and those against have managed to scuttle attempts at building a partnership.
As a result of the different positions, the issue was decided by majority vote at a Saturday meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC) and the party said it was unanimously agreed to exclude the PNCR from any alliance. Sources said an influential section of the AFC leadership is unwilling for the AFC to be subsumed in a coalition with the PNCR which has been insisting that it will be the senior and major partner in an opposition coalition for the 2011 general elections.
The AFC had been bidding to be the major partner in a pre-election coalition but the attempts have been rebuffed by the much older PNCR which is determined not to play second fiddle to other opposition groups in an alliance, the sources said.
The AFC said in a statement it will now be trying to forge alliances with civic society groups, like-minded political entities and personalities from the PNCR and the governing People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) “but not with the PPP/C or the PNCR as political organizations”.
Observers noted that the PPP/C has never indicated any interest in an alliance with the AFC and it clearly fears being an electoral bridesmaid to the PNCR.
Mr. Peter Ramsaroop, former AFC Chief Executive Officer, resigned as a party member last month and told a section of the media this was because “they do not support a united opposition which must include the PNC”.
He claimed that the previous stand by AFC Chairman, Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan that he will never work with the PNCR was a slap in the face of good people of the party.
“The AFC on its own cannot win an election…I will work again with the AFC when we all sit at the table, including the PNC, and determine a way forward along with civil society”, he offered.
Asked about his previous expressed concern about the AFC forging an alliance with the PNCR, Ramjattan last month said: “there are some international factors…I have come around to the position, that if you want, largely, to get the largest block, there must be a larger block than the AFC.”
On how the party intended to deal with the perception that PNCR Leader Robert Corbin may be an obstacle to a successful opposition alliance, Ramjattan suggested that there will always be the perception that certain personalities would be negative for the larger efforts of advancing alliances and felt that the way to go was to negotiate the best set of leaders to work along with.
Party insiders said the AFC has clearly not recovered from the leadership crisis engulfing it since last month despite attempts to paper over the issue.
The party was quick to deny reports of a meeting in Miami late last month that its leader, Mr. Raphael Trotman, disparaged his leadership rival Ramjattan.
In a press release, it claimed that the story reported by the Guyana Chronicle and the National Communications Network (NCN) was “completely fabricated”.
“There is absolutely no truth in the story whatsoever”, the AFC stated then but sources within the party say the leadership impasse has not been resolved.
Trotman and Ramjattan were 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.
Sources in the party 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.
They said the AFC has been badly hurt by the infighting and may not recover.
PNCR, AFC coalition bid collapses
SHARE THIS ARTICLE :
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp