–party yet to inform its partner about intention to cut ties

DESPITE it being one month since the Alliance for Change (AFC) first publicly announced that it was exiting its political partnership with A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), the APNU is still to receive any official correspondence of the imminent departure of its main coalition partner.

Speaking at his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Leader of the Opposition, and Chairman of APNU, Aubrey Norton, once again confirmed that the party has still not sent the APNU an official missive that it will be leaving the coalition, notwithstanding there being less than two weeks remaining before the proposed divorce.

It was on November 18 that AFC Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan, first officially announced that the AFC was leaving the seven-year-long APNU+AFC coalition effective December 31, 2022. The announcement came ahead of the December 31 end of the Cummingsburg Accord, the agreement which governs the coalescing of the two individual parties.

However, when Norton was subsequently approached about the issue a few days later, he oddly noted that the AFC had not issued the APNU any official correspondence on the development. Norton had noted that he did not plan to address the issue of the party’s departure until his party was officially notified by AFC that it was leaving.

The AFC also continues to confirm that it has not written Norton or the APNU, notwithstanding continuous confirmations that the AFC plans to exit, which begs the question of why does the AFC remain apprehensive to officially notify the APNU.

Questions have been raised about the AFC’s future in the National Assembly, and whether or not the party will retain its seats in Parliament. Based on their agreement in the Cummingsburg Accord, the AFC received nine of the 31 seats won by the combined APNU+AFC at the 2020 General and Regional Elections.

However, the APNU, of which the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R) is the largest constituent, is not known for negotiating with the AFC in good faith, with the most recent case being the election of the Region 10 Regional Vice Chairman.

In that incident, the AFC had maintained that it should be able to select the candidate for the position, with its pick being AFC member Coretta Brathwaite.
However, the PNC/R had favoured alleged AFC member, Mark Goring. Norton had made it clear that his party will not allow the AFC to “dictate” the picking of the candidate for the Vice-Chairmanship of Region 10.

However, Ramjattan had noted that there would be “consequences in relation to the relationship” between the APNU and the AFC, if the APNU did not support their pick.
The APNU and AFC remained at loggerheads for months over the issue before Goring was given the position.

Though he has been mum on whether APNU will allow the AFC to retain its parliamentary seats, Norton has noted that his party does not intend “to beg anyone to stay in the coalition”, saying that: “If they decide to go their way, so be it.”

Other members of the PNCR have noted that the possibility was not ruled out that the APNU would reach out to the AFC to reconsider; however, Ramjattan has affirmed on several occasions that his party would not be going back on its decision to leave.

“The Alliance for Change has indicated, via its last National Conference, that there be a withdrawal. If we are to have a renewal, the National Conference would have to vote on it in 2024. I will leave that for our National Conference. So, until that resolution is passed again for a new Cummingsburg Accord, we will be talking very courteously and continuing to do our parliamentary work,” Ramjattan said.