WITH fewer than two months to go before the September 1 General and Regional Elections, the Alliance For Change (AFC) is bleeding leaders and crumbling under internal fractures.
On Monday, AFC defector, former party Vice-Chairman and Member of Parliament, Deonarine “Ricky” Ramsaroop bluntly questioned whether the AFC could lead Guyana given their disregard for their own constitution.
He wrote in a comment under an online news report: “If they can breach their own constitution, what will they do with Guyana constitution?”
The damning incitement from the party’s former Vice-Chairman raised further questions about the AFC’s credibility.

The AFC’s move, last week, to expel three of its members and sitting opposition coalition parliamentarians, Ramsaroop, Sherod Duncan and Juretha Fernandes for joining APNU, was swiftly challenged.
The former party members who have threatened legal action, are relying on Article 5(7) of the AFC’s Constitution that states: “The National Executive may expel from the Party any person who while being a member, retains

or accepts membership in another political party or movement, provided that in every case any such person shall be given one month within which to resign either from the AFC Party or from the other party or movement.”
They have argued that only the AFC’s National Executive Committee has the authority to expel a party member.

According to reports, they branded their expulsions as “distressingly manifest the AFC’s leadership’s contempt for the Constitution in bypassing the NEC to execute these expulsions.”
In a press release issued by the AFC last week, the party stated that it had written to the three former members seeking clarification about their status.

After receiving no response and conducting its own verification, the AFC confirmed that the individuals had formally aligned themselves with the APNU and had been named as candidates on that party’s list for the upcoming elections.

As a result, the AFC has cancelled their membership, citing constitutional grounds and party principles.

The defection has sent ripples through the opposition landscape, with Fernandes named as APNU’s Prime Ministerial Candidate—a significant development given her previous public denial of any such offers.

On Sunday, Hughes admitted on the televised show ‘Caribbean Tea’ that the AFC does not wield the same level of political support it did in 2015 when it was first elected to government through a coalition with the APNU.
“No, the AFC is not of the same strength it was in 2015,” he said.