The Cummingsburg Accord and the future of the Alliance For Change (AFC) are expected to be the centre of debate when the party hosts its national conference on June 11, 2022.
As expected, there will be a focus on the unique relationship between the PNC/APNU and the leaders of the AFC, which has been declining ever since the March 2, 2020 elections, and the aftermath.
The membership will air out their dirty laundry about issues that have occurred since it signed the revised Accord relating to the AFC being bullied by the PNC/APNU, and beaten into submission, coupled with its mute-leadership status within the coalition.
It is widely believed that the conference will explore walking away from this accord that the party has already started to do quietly. There is a motion, allegedly, that seeks this kind of outcome that will come up for discussion.
Also, the party members may be faced with deciding whether it will stick by Khemraj Ramjattan’s side or elect David Patterson to function as its leader.
Additionally, the members will have to decide on a new National Executive or the same old, dreary and weary politicians in the form of Catherine Hughes, Dr. Vincent Adams, Valerie Garrido-Lowe and Sherod Duncan.
It does not matter how one looks at it, the fate of the AFC and its future will be decided on Saturday.
Firstly, one cannot help but assume that members are dissatisfied with the poor quality and the fickle leadership they are getting from the AFC.
Judging from the recent developments, it seems as though the PNC/APNU has hijacked the APNU+AFC coalition. There is no coalition as the AFC has been subsumed or silenced.
For example, although there is an Opposition Leader that speaks on issues, many times the AFC is not consulted or invited to share its opinion.
This development is integral to the fallout or declining relationship, and AFC members are looking at their current leaders with a side-eye. There must be political co-operation and mutual respect if there is going to be inclusivity and good governance before political parties get into government.
Secondly, there are hardly any meetings within the APNU+AFC. If that is not bad enough, there is no inclusivity and democracy within the coalition party.
The leaders do not arrive at unified decisions with regards to several political and national issues, and the AFC is deliberately or sheepishly silent. This development is sure to be discussed.

Thirdly, the AFC members are feeling that the party has become dead meat in attracting new support or voters since its marriage alliance with the APNU.
If one were to do an analytical report, one would see the decline in the number of votes which the AFC managed to steal from the PPP in the 2011/15 elections, which vanished in 2020.
Also, the party is weaker regardless of the propaganda that the General-Secretary attempts to put in the public.
So, it would seem to members that the AFC is not a viable political force because of its poor performance at the elections, the sordid and underwhelming record of its seven-cataphoric ministers in the past APNU+AFC Government, and their anti-poor and anti-development policies.
One would expect the AFC intellectual members to object to this relationship with APNU and the accord.
Fourthly, the political party’s silence on the post-electoral squabble and conflict is still deafening as it is damaging.
The current AFC leadership will be forced to explain to its membership its stance on allegations of its involvement in attempts to clandestinely collude with the attempted riggers in stealing the last election.
Ramjattan and Patterson should not be re-elected because of the AFC’s involvement in the election fiasco and decisions of the party during the 2020 to 2022 period.
Finally, the APNU does not need the AFC.