THE Alliance For Change (AFC) has announced the formation of its election campaign committee in preparation for the upcoming General and Regional Elections.

General-Secretary of the party, Mr. Marlon Williams, made the announcement at a press conference held at party headquarters on Wednesday.

“The national executive committee of the party in the last two weeks has been preparing for national elections and we have put the campaign committee together and we are ready and raring for national elections,” Mr. Williams said.

The party said that it is encouraged by the high level of requests for membership it has experienced and welcomes the level of interest shown by members of the public to join the party.

Responding to the party meeting with the Carter Center and the reason for their visit, Mr. Williams said that the Carter Center came on a traditional fact-finding mission.

“The Carter Center has been good to us in terms of aiding us in developing our democracy, and the AFC welcomes the centre, and we are very happy that they continue to show interest in Guyana. The Carter Center sought to see what is the AFC’s position in terms of what transpired in Parliament,” He said.

He said that the party’s position of what happens after March 21 this year has to be based on what is provided for in the constitution. The constitution, he said, also provides for GECOM to be ready and to give a timeframe in which they can hold competent national elections that can be deemed free and fair. He urged that all parties go back to parliament to facilitate this; following this, the president will announce a date, he noted.

The general-secretary, who was the lone person represented at the press conference, sought to clarify the party’s view on GECOM. He said that the party is seeking a bipartisan position from GECOM on the earliest date for the holding of General and Regional Elections and a definitive decision from the commission on what it intends to do to ensure the credibility of the elections, an anxiously awaited.

Mr. Williams said that the party has publicly made these requests known by its involvement on the picket line. He reiterated the call for house to house registration, so that the list can be sanitized, noting that the PPP keeps moving the goal post, based on their interest on this issue.

“From 2015 the opposition has been saying that the list has to be cleaned, and just because perceivably you think it is in your best interest, you are now changing your position”. He said with regard to the no-confidence motion “There is no magic of numbers, because Guyana doesn’t have that precedence in terms of the interpolation of that section of the law; the learned barristers went and checked in the Commonwealth and have seen those analogies in terms of an interpolation of what is an absolute majority.”

He explained that they are members of the now opposition, while they were in government, that have presented that very case indicating that the number would have been 34, but now that this government has been faced with a similar vote, positions have been changed.

“We can’t keep moving the goalpost based on perceptive benefits,” he added.
Responding to allegations of the government doing the same thing by accepting the list for Local Government Elections (LGEs) but not for General and Regional Elections, Williams said that is not the case in this situation since the 2019 budget, which was passed by parliament, has allocated funds for house-to-house registration.

While all parties were satisfied with going to LGEs with the current list, it would not be wise to go to the general elections with a flawed list, which has to determine who will run the country.

“This is national elections; we must ensure that we have a clean as possible list,” he said.
Addressing the issue of dual citizenship within the ranks of the party, the chairman said that only one such case exists and it is that of its parliamentarian Mr. Gaskin, who was born in another country, but spent his whole life in Guyana. This, he said, is different from the others who took an oath to become citizens of other countries and he will not comment on that.

The party has not yet pronounced on its prime ministerial candidate.