AFC’s role in the coalition to be discussed at NEC – GS Patterson

…nominations closed; says willing to run for leadership, if nominated

The way forward for the Alliance For Change (AFC) as a party will be among the key issues discussed during that party’s upcoming National Executive Conference (NEC), which is scheduled for June 11.
This has been confirmed by the party’s incumbent General Secretary, David Patterson, in an interview with this publication. He noted that all nominations closed on Wednesday at 20:00h, and, so far, a large number of nominations has been received.

“All our nominations closed at 8:00 pm today. We had to extend (the time because) the outlying regions were coming in. I think all of them are here, but I’ll have to wait before making that (pronouncement)… There are lots of nominations for all the positions. The AFC has a tradition (in which) every year, all the positions are competed for,” he said.
Patterson has denied that the party would be deciding on whether to split from the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), as some reports have indicated. He noted only that the topic of the “way forward” for the party would be discussed. Patterson also made it clear that, if nominated, he would run for leadership.
“The ‘way forward’ document is the way forward for the next two years for the Alliance For Change,” Patterson has explained.
Sources have indicated that that document does address the AFC’s future in the coalition arrangement, and will be deliberated on at the NEC, which is expected to attract hundreds of delegates. The Conference is the highest decision-making forum of that party, and in it delegates vote for persons to fill the executive positions of Leader, Chairman, Deputy Chairman, General Secretary, and Treasurer. This is in addition to the election of ten members to represent the 10 administrative regions of Guyana, and four members to represent the diaspora.
Holding of this conference had been deferred last year due to the COVID pandemic, but members of the National Executive Committee agreed in a meeting last month that the National Conference would be held on June 11, 2022. A hybrid system wherein regional delegates would gather at a central internet-ready location and join the online platform would be employed.
In 2019, Khemraj Ramjattan was declared Leader of the AFC, with Raphael Trotman elected Chairman. Catherine Hughes was returned as the party’s Vice-Chair, while Patterson was elected General Secretary.
A few months ago, People’s National Congress Reform members elected longstanding party stalwart Aubrey Norton as their leader in a landslide win against then Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon and Dr Richard Van West-Charles. However, an internal power struggle ensued, and Harmon subsequently submitted his resignation as an APNU (A Partnership for National Unity) Member of Parliament.
Harmon had previously stepped down as Opposition Leader in January of this year, amid mounting pressure from within the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR).
Following his resignation as an MP, Harmon told a section of the media that he resigned for personal reasons, while adding that he did so in the best interest of the nation, and more so that of the APNU/AFC.
PNCR Leader Aubrey Norton, the new Opposition Leader, has a mandate from the PNC Central Executive Committee (CEC) to take up both that position and the position of Representative of the List of Candidates. The current list representative is former PNCR Leader David Granger.
The AFC had joined hands with the People’s National Congress (PNC)-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) to contest the 2015 General and Regional Elections, and the coalition subsequently won. The parties subsequently signed the Cummingsburg Accord, which outlined the parliamentary seats and ministerial portfolios for AFC and APNU members respectively. However, APNU, led by former President David Granger, had been continuously violating the Accord. The party announced in 2020 that it would be reviewing the Accord. On December 24, 2019, after much back and forth between APNU and the AFC, a revised Cummingsburg Accord was signed, but the full details were never released to the public.