– says smaller parties were only concerned about positions
With news of serious divisions and leadership challenges, leader of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) David Granger has called on the Justice for All Party (JFAP) and the Working Peoples Alliance (WPA) to return to the coalition.
In August 2020, the WPA resigned from the APNU, citing the dictatorial nature of the PNC – the largest faction in the coalition. Then in September 2020, the Savitri Sharma-led JFAP submitted its resignation.
APNU Leader and former President of Guyana, David Granger
In a letter to Granger, the WPA had stated that since the formation of APNU, there has been an active sidelining of the smaller parties.
Similarly, Sharma had accused Granger and the PNC of “using and discarding” the smaller parties within the coalition.
In fact, when the APNU selected its parliamentary list for the 12th Parliament, the JFAP was not given a seat. Similarly, the WPA was only afforded one representative and that person, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, was handpicked by Granger without consultation with the WPA.
The PNC faction of the APNU has taken 22 of the 31 seats for itself and sidelined the other parties in the APNU.
In a PNC-organised interview on Friday, Granger admitted that he was responsible for selecting the current batch of parliamentarians.
“The extractions were in accordance with the lists which were presented to me and in my judgement, I made [the] decisions to ensure we had the type of cohort in the National Assembly which could fulfil the mission of the APNU/AFC,” Granger said.
“I believe I acted correctly,” the former President added.
Granger further insinuated that the JFAP and WPA were only concerned about positions, pointing out that the resignations came after the 2020 elections when the APNU/AFC was ousted from office.
“It was about the seats…but the APNU is not driven by occupancy of seats, it is driven by service to the people of this country,” he stated.
Nevertheless, Granger expressed hopes that the JFAP and WPA would return to the APNU.
“I would like them to come back to the partnership at some stage or the other,” he noted.
The APNU was formed to contest the 2011 General and Regional Elections consisting of the PNC and several other parties. With WPA and JFAP gone, only the Guyana Action Party (GAP), the Guyana Association of Local Authorities (GALA), the Guyana National Congress (GNC), the Guyana People’s Partnership (GPP), the Guyana Youth Congress (GYC), the National Democratic Front (NDF) and the National Front Alliance (NFA) are left.
In spite of the fallout, Granger is confident that the APNU is not going to “expire”.
But the APNU/AFC is embroiled in disunity and internal power struggles that have been played out publicly in recent months with some members accusing the party leadership of not consulting with its membership.
The main uproar was over Granger’s dictatorial approach to selecting the new batch of parliamentarians.
Former coalition MP James Bond, who himself was left out of the parliamentary list, had publicly criticised Granger on several occasions on social media for the exclusion of PNC Chairperson Volda Lawrence.
In addition to the JFAP and WPA walking away from the partnership, several individual members have resigned.
In March 2021, it was revealed that Chairman of the AFC Georgetown Chapter and Councillor at the Georgetown Mayor and City Council Michael Leonard resigned from the party.
In February, Joel Edmond, the husband of Opposition coalition Member of Parliament Geeta Chandan-Edmond, also resigned from the AFC.
Former AFC parliamentarian Reynard Ward had also resigned, accusing the party of being in an abusive relationship with the PNC-led APNU.
Abel Seetaram, a former AFC Regional Councillor for Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), resigned in 2020, citing a number of issues, including the party’s inability to make its own decisions. AFC’s Gobin Harbhajan also walked away from the party in 2020.
Prominent AFC party member Vladimir Glasgow also quit the party, contending that the AFC lost its way and became consumed by the PNC.
AFC’s Audwin Rutherford also submitted a resignation letter to the party in 2020. He had also said that the AFC has lost its independent voice and with it, its principles.
AFC’s General Secretary David Patterson had even resigned from the post, in the wake of a dispute over the election of a Vice Chairman for the Region Four Regional Democratic Council (RDC).
APNU, which has a history of infringements against the smaller party, locked the AFC out from the Vice Chair position despite a previous agreement.
The previous agreement that Patterson helped craft had stipulated that the AFC would get the Vice Chair positions in Regions Seven and Four. But following the election of APNU candidate, former Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Captain Daniel Seeram, it was not to be.
However, Patterson has since somersaulted on his decision and withdrawn his resignation.
Meanwhile, PNC Member Lennox Gasper had also resigned this year, citing issues such as control freakism, bullyism and deception – which he said was reflected in the party’s attempt to “barefacedly” rig the March 2, 2020 elections.
