THE alliance of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance for Change (AFC) took their campaign to Linden, Region 10, on Saturday and representatives of the leadership made it clear that the two parties “are better together” in their stance against the current Administration.However, the stance adopted by the alliance has impacted negatively on ‘bread-and-butter issues’ for the Guyanese people, according to President Donald Ramotar.

He contends that securing power by uniting against the incumbent People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is the “end game” for the alliance.
“Clearly what has been revealed is that this is a grab for power; we know it,” the President posited.
Mr Ramotar will run to reclaim his post at the upcoming May 11 General and Regional Elections, and has the full backing of the ruling Party.
He reasoned that in the weeks the opposition parties took to negotiate their alliance, the focus, as they announced, was on “who gets what,” as opposed to what they have to offer the Guyanese people.
“The weeks that they took to negotiate were not to hammer out what they will do; what their manifesto will be… They want power; power is their end game; not power to see what they can do for the country, otherwise at the initial stage, the emphasis would have been on what their programme and polices will be,” the President said.
He surmised that having position and power as the focus of the negotiations was a misstep. “I think that one thing that struck me about the agreement is that they took a long time to come to agreement, and what they were arguing about was position: Who will get what; not about a policy programme… Mr Nagamootoo has been talking about ‘cutting the fat’ from Government, and with the alliance he is supporting four Vice-Presidents… And that is building a huge bureaucracy,” Mr Ramotar said.
POWER IS NO BIRTHRIGHT
On that note, he decried the mentality, evidenced in comments by the alliance’s leadership, which is that power is a “birthright”, and stressed that the crux of the electoral process is ensuring that the mandate to lead is in the hands of the Guyanese voters.
The President said, “Mr Nagamootoo left one month after he lost nomination to be presidential candidate for the PPP…what we have is a move by bitter people who feel they have a birthright to lead Guyana…we have a group of bitter and power hungry men.”
All considered, he noted that a win at the upcoming polls is the only way the manifestations of the alliance’s thoughts, as reflected in their public positions, will become reality.
The Head of State expressed doubt that the APNU will stick to their agreement, given the history of the People’s National Congress (PNC), the majority partner in APNU, with coalitions.
“I don’t think they will stick to that agreement,…the head of the list will determine who goes on the list or not and I am sure it will be Mr Granger,” he said.
Mr Ramotar’s observations follow the expressed sentiments of several politicos, who contend that the smaller AFC trumped APNU in the outcome of their negotiations – which are outlined in the Cummingsburg Accord.
Going into the coalition negotiation with the five-party APNU, the AFC controlled 21 per cent of the combined opposition seats in Parliament, but came out with a guarantee of 40 per cent of the Cabinet, and at least 12 Parliamentary seats, should they succeed at the upcoming polls.
APNU held 79 per cent of the Opposition seating arrangement in the House going into the negotiation.
“I think the AFC started to loose support some time back and they recognised that they were losing support and they decided to make the plunge to join APNU to see if they can hold on to something,” Mr Ramotar said.

NO POLITICAL MILEAGE
In recent comments, the President also maintained that the political opposition will gain “political mileage” from driving the country to its knees, via its “anti-development” approach.
“They have said no to everything and have brought nothing to the table,” he stressed, adding that the political opposition has blocked the Administration’s flagship developmental projects unreasonably.
“They have blocked development that could have delivered for the Guyanese people,” Mr Ramotar stressed.
He cited the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP), the Specialty Hospital, the modernisation of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) and the Marriott Hotel as some of the projects that have been on the receiving end of the political opposition’s attacks.
“They are focused as creating as much damage, putting as many impediments in place to progress…. I can only assume that they will drive this country to its knees, back to times when we could not eat what we wanted, buy what we wanted or…I believe they think it will improve their political fortunes,” Mr Ramotar said.
The Head of State was emphatic that come what may the incumbent PPP/C will continue to fight to deliver development, tackle emerging challenges and advance the nation to the point where Guyanese are positioned to enjoy higher standards of living.

By Vanessa Narine