I HAD written it several times before that the AFC will go into the 2025 election with the PNC, hoping to keep its name alive, and hoping to have one or two parliamentary seats. Such a possibility has died for two reasons: One is the PNC would accept the AFC into an election alliance, but there will be absolutely no written agreement on the number of seat allocation. The PNC will not concede seat allocation.

Two: The Nigel Hughes factor. It is doubtful that Mr. Hughes will want to go into the election as APNU+AFC. Under Hughes, there will be no APNU+AFC ticket. I think for all intent and purpose, the formation named the ANPU+AFC is dead. For all intent and purpose, I think the AFC is dead and gone. I cannot count the number of times on these pages that I have written that opinion.

I honestly did not know Nigel Hughes would have officially entered politics. But even if it was rumoured that he will, my thought was that he would have formed his own party. The reality is Mr. Hughes is heading a party with personnel that are highly tainted, and with a party that will be hard to compete with third parties.

It is the same people that promised the Promised Land to Guyanese, then became a PNC surrogate. Does Mr. Hughes think he can wipe out those memories which are still fresh in the collective mind of the nation? What can Raphael Trotman tell the Guyanese people that will make them vote for him?

The same question can be raised in relation to Cathy Hughes and David Patterson. And although Khemraj Ramjattan is not in the hierarchy, he is in the executive, which is the body that makes decisions.

In 2025, no one will want to hear his name. This is the man who opened his mouth and said that the decision to close the sugar estates came from the AFC. Can he speak at an AFC campaign meeting without facing the possibility of disruption? Then there is Sherod Duncan. The PPP has the report into his conduct as head of the Chronicle during the APNU+AFC regime, and will make mincemeat out of him the first day of the election campaign.

No one should envy Mr. Hughes, because his task is a Sisyphean one. Then he has to deal with the perennial question of the five months of rigged election. He has to deal with the revolving questions that dogged the AFC while it was in power. If Hughes does not take the lead and answer those questions himself, thereby putting himself into an accountability mode, the AFC will face disaster. I dealt with some of those extreme curiosities that must be answered in my Wednesday column. But there is one that I left out.

In February 2020, a month before the election, the PNC and the AFC, with lead negotiators David Patterson and Vincent Adams, renegotiated the Cummingsburg Accord and publicly stated that one clause has to remain secret. Can the AFC, under Nigel’s leadership. tell us about that mystery? Nigel was not part of that episode, and may not know about the details. But he has to demand from Adams and Patterson the fine print. If they refuse, then Nigel has to call an emergency meeting to oust them.

The question is: Who will get what seats in 2025? My thinking is the PPP will pull votes from the PNC. The PNC will suffer a substantial decline, but apart from the PPP, which other parties will receive the votes from the disaffected PNC supporters? I doubt the AFC will get any, but I am willing to concede that the AFC could muster a seat if it is prepared to apologise for its time in office, but, more importantly, denounce the PNC for its mistreatment of the AFC between 2015 and 2020.

The fallout from the PNC is likely to benefit ANUG, and maybe some new dynamic party. There is rumour about Glen Lall forming a party. One hopes that that circus never comes to town. People look at Lall for entertainment, but would not dare entertain the thought of voting for him. Lall is in love with himself, but apart from GHK Lall, I doubt Lall will get more than two votes. It may, in fact, be one vote; Lall himself. I think GHK Lall is going to vote for either the PNC or AFC, because, after all, it was those two parties that secured the golden future for GHK Lall, by making him the chairman of the Gold Board. The formation of a third party is going to be a non-starter. After what the AFC did and what Asha Kissoon did. Third parties will be stillborn.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.