PNC, AFC coalition unlikely as Nigel Hughes admits struggle over leadership

…all signs point to PNCR insisting on Norton being presidential candidate

In an admission, Alliance For Change (AFC) leader Nigel Hughes has admitted that his party’s accord with A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is on life support, as the smaller party remains wary of past mistakes and the fact that a suitable mechanism must be employed to choose between him and his APNU counterpart, Aubrey Norton, to decide who will be the presidential candidate.
Reports had emerged on Tuesday that the People’s National Congress (PNC) led APNU and AFC had reached an accord for further discussions towards coalescing. This is despite the fact that all evidence pointed to PNC insisting on its leader being the Presidential candidate.
During a press conference on Tuesday evening, Hughes admitted that there was indeed an agreement and that the content of this accord includes an agreement for the two parties to hold talks on the deciding whether to contest the upcoming General and Regional elections as a coalition or independently… a decision they have agreed will be made by March 31.
“We have been authorized by our executives to enter into discussion with other parties. We believe that with some parties, it is better to have documented the parameters of our engagement, just so that we are all on the same page. However, there’s no change in our commitment to enter into these elections on our own, if necessary,” Hughes said.
“The agreement was structured in two phases. The first phase would be an exploratory phase where we examine whether or not it is possible for us to collaborate in the national interest and present a joint team or a single team to contest the next elections. The second phase is dependent on whether or not we had a successful conclusion to the first phase,” he added.
While Hughes was reluctant to expound in too much detail on what was necessary to revive the agreement from its current life support status, he did make reference to his and Norton’s contrasting leadership styles.
“The AFC’s position tonight is that there have been developments which caused us to pause. Now anything that is on life support, the fact that it is on life support I think holds out that there is always hope and promise that we will move from that position to one that is positive but of course, there is an equal possibility of a movement in a less than favorable direction.”
“There has to be a mechanism for identifying, assuming that it gets out of life support and gets back on its feet, there has to be mechanisms and a process for identifying the leadership. For us, that process has to be driven by scientific means. Polls and other criteria.”
After the news broke of this accord, this publication had reached out to a senior official in the PNC/R, who had confirmed that the two parties have been in discussions and that representatives did meet. The source had indicated that in case the two parties do join forces to contest the upcoming elections, they will be insistent on Norton leading the coalition slate as its consensus Presidential candidate.
“We have met and we will put a statement with regards to what was discussed… we did have talks. Each party has their own Presidential candidate, as elected by their own party. But if we have an agreement, we’ll have to (determine) who will be the coalition’s Presidential and Prime Ministerial candidate. As far as the PNC/R goes, (Norton) is our Presidential candidate and that’s who we’ll be pushing on our end,” the source explained.
There had been discussions in the public domain over who would be the Presidential candidate if AFC were to reunite with its old coalition partner, APNU, since Opposition and People’s National Congress (PNC) leader Aubrey Norton was designated as their Presidential candidate since last year.
Following his election as leader, Norton had said that PNC was considering contesting the 2025 General and Regional Elections independently. And while he had indicated that he would be willing to step aside as the party’s presidential candidate for someone who may have more electability, he had made it clear that any new presidential candidate must be someone from within the PNC.
It was announced a few days ago that Hughes had been designated as the Presidential Candidate of the AFC, after the party concluded the first meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC) for the year.
APNU, whose largest member is the PNC, had merged with the AFC in 2015 for the elections that year. The two parties had also jointly contested in the 2020 elections. However, AFC formally broke its coalition with APNU back in December 2022.
The revised Cummingsburg Accord, a political agreement between the two organisations, had provided for this separation. At the time, Former AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan had indicated that the two political organizations would do their political work separately but work in parliament jointly. (G3)