SO, FINALLY, after an earlier postponement, the David Granger-led APNU (A Partnership for National Unity) was formally launched on Friday evening with its boastful challenge to replace the incumbent PPP/C in government and to “end one-party rule.” Next Sunday would make APNU one month old under the leadership of ex-GDF Brigadier Granger who, like the PNC’s leader Robert Corbin, would be well versed in what ‘one-party rule’ has done AGAINST Guyana and its people under the successive administrations that resulted from stolen elections during the long power-grab from Forbes Burnham to Desmond Hoyte.
The more observant monitors of party politics in Guyana would have noted that PNC leader, Robert Corbin, was present at the event, but did not speak. Further, that the event could hardly be described as a people-focused occasion, restricted as it was to largely selected ‘representatives’ and allies of the collection of small parties.
They are all struggling for credibility by holding on to what remains of the PNC, on the assumption of Granger’s success to mobilise the traditional voting supporters of that party to achieve the promised change in government. The future of the PNC itself is now uncertain –after Corbin.
Another significant factor to be noted, and as also reported by ‘Demerara Waves’ Online news edition, was the failure of APNU to identify its ‘leadership team’, consistent with an earlier promise.
Further, according to ‘Demerara Waves’, differences arose during the launch ceremony between the PNC and WPA on the status of APNU’s leadership team. In the end, there emerged a kind of temporary device to have, instead, something called a ‘political guidance team’, comprising elements of the constituent parts of APNU.
The intention, it seems, is to have this ‘guidance team’ function, in whatever manner, while political manoeuvres continue to identify both a running-mate for presidential hopeful, Granger, and a potential prime minister.
While it is understandable that all contesting parties for the coming elections, including the incumbent PPP/C and the Alliance for Change (AFC), would be expected to have under active consideration issues such as composition of lists of potential parliamentarians, selection of running-mates and prime ministerial candidates, APNU’s obsession with attacking the PPP and the government is apparently blunting its capacity for clear thinking on priorities for the way forward.
Meanwhile, one very immediate concern for all contesting parties must be for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to get its acts together and move with haste to ensure that ALL eligible voters are registered to cast their ballots at the coming elections.