PNC in talks with WPA on rejoining coalition – Norton

…says AFC opted to stay separate

The People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R), the largest party in the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Coalition, is in talks with two of its former coalition partners on the possibility of them rejoining that coalition.
During a press conference on Tuesday, PNC leader Aubrey Norton was asked about the current status of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), a former key member of APNU, and the Alliance For Change (AFC), which had partnered with APNU in the last two general and regional elections.
According to Norton, talks continue with WPA, which only recently announced that its longstanding party executive, Dr. David Hinds would be its presidential candidate next year. Meanwhile, he revealed that AFC wants to maintain their separation for the time being.

“We have been having (talks) with the WPA. The last position I know that we had with the AFC, was that we will continue to operate as a parliamentary opposition, APNU/AFC, but that the AFC wants to do its political work, for now, by itself. And at the right time, we will look at coalition politics,” Norton explained.
Norton was also asked about a recent political meeting the AFC held in Linden and whether he told PNC supporters to stay away. The opposition leader denied this, adding that if the AFC had wanted his party there, they would have been invited.
“The AFC didn’t advise us that they were holding a meeting in Linden. In fact, like everybody else, I saw it the day before or two days before, on social media,” the opposition leader explained.

“And I would have assumed that if you are a political party and you consider us to be an ally, and you’re holding a political activity and you want our support, you would engage us to say look, we’re having this activity. Let us work out support, etc. so I do not know that I had to encourage our supporters to participate, in something we weren’t invited to,”
The WPA, whose leader Dr. Walter Rodney had been assassinated with the complicity of PNC leader Forbes Burnham, had coalesced with PNC under the APNU umbrella as far back as 2011. Meanwhile, the AFC had partnered with APNU in 2015, also to contest elections. Both parties have since exited the coalition, after they lost power in the 2020 general and regional elections.
Following the ascension of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) to the seat of Government in August 2020, the WPA in a letter to then APNU Chairman David Granger, had accused the larger PNC/R party of dictatorial tendencies to the smaller parties in the coalition.

WPA’s Secretary, Tacuma Ogunseye, had noted that since the formation of APNU there have been an active sidelining of the smaller parties. That has caused the WPA to, on many occasions, air its grievances both internally and publicly.
He had said that throughout the life of the APNU, WPA, to its detriment, had done everything within its powers to ensure the survival and success of the APNU and by extension, the coalition. The accommodating positions it assumed on critical issues, which it would normally condemn, have exposed the party both internally, by party members and supporters and externally, by its detractors, to the worst kinds of criticisms imaginable.
The WPA had requested that the names of its two nominees for Parliament and the Region Four Regional Democratic Council seats be removed from the APNU’s list. Instead of withdrawing, however, one of those names, Sarabo-Halley, had remained in Parliament, resigned from WPA in August 2020 and formed the GNB, going on to join the APNU coalition.
WPA’s grievances of being sidelined were similar to that of the AFC, which formally broke its coalition deal with APNU back in December 2022. The revised Cummingsburg Accord, a political agreement between the two parties, had provided for this separation. At the time, former AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan had indicated that the two parties would do their political work separately but work in parliament jointly.
During their time in office, the minority AFC had been criticised for the submissive role it played to the APNU. Decisions the former Government made, such as the closure of sugar estates, which put thousands of sugar workers out of jobs, were passed unchallenged and even supported by the AFC. This is despite the AFC retaining the Agriculture Ministry.
This passive relationship with APNU was cited by former AFC parliamentarian Charrandas Persaud, as one of the reasons he voted for the No-Confidence Motion that brought down the APNU/AFC Government in 2018.
As it stands now, PNC despite being the largest party in APNU, does not hold the chairmanship of the coalition. That is because in June, the parties within the APNU coalition – the Guyana Action Party (GAP), the National Democratic Front, Equal Rights and Justice Party, and the Guyana Nation Builders Movement – held a meeting and elected GAP’s Vincent Henry as the new Chairman of APNU, a move which the PNC had deemed “null and void” since they were not aware of the elections. (G3)