– after Granger lets cat out of the bag

CONTRARY to what he’d said before about his Party’s position regarding A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s proposal for a broader coalition, Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Mr Khemraj Ramjattan now seems to have had a change of heart.

“We will be dealing with it shortly; I don’t want to make any further comments,” he told the Guyana Chronicle on Saturday when the issue was raised with him, whereas he’d told the Guyana Times earlier in the week, “It is nothing of the sort,” which was taken to mean that the two parties had not yet discussed the matter.
But APNU and Opposition Leader, Brigadier (rtd.) David Granger inadvertently let the ‘cat out of the bag’ Friday, when he announced at his Party’s weekly press conference that the coalition proposal was renewed earlier in the week, during a meeting between the two Opposition parties. And that was prior to Ramjattan expressing that “it was nothing of the sort.”

COALITION OFFER STANDS
According to Granger, “The matter was raised…and I would say the ball is now in the AFC’s court.” To this extent, however, he informed that no indication was made by the AFC as to whether they will buy into the proposal. As such, the offer still stands.
The denial from the AFC leader comes at a time when communication between the two parties is described as fragmented. Just recently, Ramjattan had leveled accusations against the ruling People’s Progressive Party that they were attempting to “buy-out” three Opposition Members of Parliament to vote against their no-confidence motion, which could result in the possibility of snap elections.
Ramjattan added that the MPs which the Government were targeting were from APNU and he had knowledge of who the three were.
No evidence was, however, produced by Ramjattan to support the claims, neither has he to date issued a statement to the APNU leader to indicate who the MPs are.

DIFFERENT CALLS
Moreover, the two Opposition parties have differed in their call for elections, with APNU calling for Local Government Elections and AFC pressing for the National Assembly to be convened in order to present their sponsored no-confidence motion against the Government, which, if supported by APNU, will result in snap elections being called within months.