THE Justice For All Party (JFAP) has withdrawn from the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) which formed the coalition government from 2015-2020.
The APNU is now made up of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R) and the Guyana Action Party which are represented on the opposition benches.
In a letter dated September 1, 2020 to PNC/R Leader, David Granger, JFAP General-Secretary, Savitree Sharma, stated: “Like any other organisation, APNU has its strengths and weaknesses, success and failures. The Guyana’s political landscape is changing significantly and it demands a re-examination of roles and relationships. At this time, as we withdraw from APNU we wish to thank you for the opportunity to have been part of your political movement.”

The JFAP and the National Front Alliance (NFA) led by Keith Scott were not selected to sit in the opposition benches, with former President Granger saying that parties needed to garner at least 7,000 votes to secure one of the 31 opposition parliamentary seats.
The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) last month also withdrew from the APNU after not being consulted on the candidates selected as its representatives in the National Assembly and the Region Four Regional Democratic Council (RDC).

“The time has come when the WPA is forced to draw a line in the sand and say that enough is enough. Since 2015 there has been no new and progressive dispensation within the APNU and there is no recognition of the rights of the partners to contribute to the decision-making process and more importantly, for each party, not the general-secretary of the PNC/R, or its leader, to determine unilaterally, the allocation of seats to each member party of the APNU for Parliament, RDC and NDC. In a meeting before the March 2. 2020: General and Regional Elections, with you, comrade Granger and other PNC/R representatives in the Ministry of the Presidency Media Centre, we made our position clear on the above matter and were assured by you that we have an agreement – only to learn that this was not so when our nominee for Region 10 was not put on the list of candidates,” WPA Secretary Tacuma Ogunseye wrote in a letter to APNU Leader, David Granger.

“Mr. Granger, we are convinced that there will be no significant attitudinal changes within the APNU on the matters raised above, and those which must engage the attention of the organisation and be corrected, if it is to regain the government at future elections. It is this conviction and the circumstances referenced that WPA feels it can no longer remain a member of the APNU,” he added.