LEADER of the Opposition (LoO) and Chairman of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Aubrey Norton, on Tuesday, made it clear that his party will not allow the Alliance For Change to “dictate” the picking of the candidate for the Vice-Chairmanship of Region 10.

This challenges earlier comments by AFC Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan, that his party would get the support of the APNU for their pick, Coretta Brathwaite, for the Vice-Chair position or there could be “consequences in relation to the relationship” between the APNU and the AFC.

Speaking at his weekly press conference, Norton made it clear that his party is not in support of the AFC having sole authority over who the Vice-Chairman candidate should be.
“The issue was not whether it’s an AFC Vice-Chairman. As far as I know the APNU has been disposed to an AFC Vice-Chair but it must not be somebody who is dictated by the AFC who doesn’t have the confidence of the APNU,” Norton declared.

Norton skirted around further questions on the issue, particularly as pertains to how soon the two sides would find a consensus candidate for the position which has been vacant since June 2021 when the then Vice-Chair, Douglas Gittens, died of COVID-19.

“You can ask the people involved in Region 10 if they have a timeline. I am saying direct your questions to the actors in Region 10,” was all that Norton would say as he faced questions on the issue.
The APNU and AFC joined forces to contest the 2015 elections. Over the years, their relationship has been rocky. Some executives of the AFC have been pushing for the party to leave the Coalition.

In the past two years, several parties have left the Coalition, citing dictatorial behaviour by the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R), APNU’s largest member. Norton is also leader of the PNC/R.
The APNU+AFC has 15 of the 18 seats on the Region 10 Regional Democratic Council (RDC).

The two fractions of the APNU+AFC Coalition have been at loggerheads about the sharing of seats and picking of key appointments in their majority RDCs since 2020 when the APNU members of the Region Four failed to support an AFC candidate for the Vice-Chairman post of that region. The APNU+AFC has majority seats in three of the country’s 10 administrative regions, namely Regions Four, Seven and 10.

The AFC had claimed that there was an understanding between the two sides that the appointment of the Vice-Chair of Region Four would have gone to an AFC member on that Council, given agreements for seat sharing between the two sides.

However, the APNU members on the Region Four RDC did not vote for the AFC candidate, and the Region Four Vice-Chair position instead went to Samuel Sandy, an APNU member, leading to a fall out between the two sides. The post of Chairman for the RDC went to Daniel Seeram, also an APNU member.

As the friction between the two sides continued, in 2021 the AFC councillors on the Region Four RDC sought to bring forth a motion of no confidence against the Sandy and Seeram. According to the AFC, the motion was in “direct response of continued failures and shortcomings in the management of the affairs of the people in this key geographical region.”

Given that it was axed from the Region Four Vice-Chairman position, the AFC later lobbied for the Region 10 Vice-Chairmanship following Gittens death. However, the situation has once again descended to in-fighting.