–Mahipaul says APNU behind its leader for presidential candidate, maintains their offers to the AFC were ‘reasonable’

THE People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR)/A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has maintained that even if a coalition was to be formed ahead of the September 1, 2025 General and Regional Elections, their pick for presidential candidate would be Aubrey Norton.

In light of the continued exchange between APNU and the Alliance For Change (AFC) over the reason for the failed coalition talks, executive member of the PNCR, Ganesh Mahipaul, during a press conference on Friday, said that his party was “reasonable” in its offers to the former coalition partner now led by Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes.

Mahipaul said: “I believe that we, from the APNU side, we have offered AFC, what the majority of persons consider to be reasonable offers, and if they don’t see it as reasonable, they, of course, would have had to pen their counter offers. We did not find favour with their counter offers, and we maintain that our offers were very reasonable in the discussions and negotiations.”

Although the PNCR remains the dominant opposition political force, reports regarding the coalition’s negotiations paint the picture that the AFC attempted to strong-arm its way.

News reports have highlighted that during the early stages of the negotiation, the AFC demanded an overwhelming majority of the Cabinet appointments including the Office of the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance and the Office of the Attorney General, in addition to being made the Representative of the List.

The AFC pushed aggressively for 65 per cent of the Cabinet appointments. In response, the APNU rejected this power grab attempt, maintaining its seniority.

Adding to the contradictions, AFC Leader Hughes, on Tuesday, publicly claimed that “at no point has the AFC demanded the presidency, nor have we insisted that our nominee must lead any coalition.”

But it was later revealed, in one of the documents, that the AFC subtly lobbied against APNU Chairman and PNCR Leader Aubrey Norton.

It was reported that the AFC said, in a document, that it does not consider the leader of APNU the “strongest and most attractive or marketable choice” for the coalition presidential candidate.

APNU and AFC held office between 2015 and 2020 as a coalition and were engaged in talks to resurrect the alliance ahead of this year’s elections.

But earlier this year, when the coalition’s future was hanging in the balance with early talks labelled as being on “life support,” Hughes seemingly rejected Norton as the presidential candidate.

“Absolutely not,” Hughes had promptly responded when asked whether Norton was identified as the presidential candidate.

However, Norton had previously emphasised that the PNCR, as the largest party in the coalition, is entitled to the presidential candidacy and would not relinquish this role to a smaller party, and to put it frank, not to “anybody who just fly off of a tree top.”

At the PNCR’s 22nd Biennial Delegates Congress, a resolution was passed maintaining that Norton shall be the party’s presidential candidate for the next general and regional elections, and only he could decide whether someone else should be the candidate and who that person should be.