THE small Alliance For Change (AFC) party is apparently in rough leadership seas similar to those that washed the main opposition People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) into deep trouble.
Political analysts noted that as reported in yesterday’s Stabroek News, the AFC has to wrestle with a thorny leadership issue when its National Executive meets Saturday.
According to the Stabroek News, a promised agreement for rotation of its leadership could see party leader Raphael Trotman, a former senior PNCR member who defected to form his own party, stepping aside.
One analyst pointed out that it seems that some in the AFC are not in favour of Trotman handing over the leadership to Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan, who could then be put up as the party’s presidential candidate for general elections due next year.
Ramjattan is a defector from the governing People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and according to the analysts, a faction in the AFC executive is insisting that he should be the presidential candidate in keeping with the leadership rotation principle.
Another PNCR defector, Peter Ramsaroop, was up to recently a senior member of the AFC leadership but resigned and is being investigated for allegedly spying through concealed cameras on a teenaged female tenant in an apartment building he owns in Queenstown, Georgetown.
Seasoned political analysts yesterday said that leadership squabbles in the AFC, like those that have led to splits in the PNCR could lead to even more disarray among opposition parties amid speculation about a coalition of these parties for next year’s election.
They said that with such dissension in their ranks, some in leadership positions in the opposition camp may be leaning more towards some form of shared governance with the PPP/C to ensure their political survival.