Sherod Duncan tops nominations list for AFC leadership

– Ramjattan absent; Trotman nominated for GS position

Sherod Duncan has emerged with a landslide of support in his quest for leadership of the Alliance For Change (AFC), beating out prominent members like David Patterson and Nigel Hughes in the recently concluded Nomination process.
Ahead of its 8th Biannual Conference set for June 29, the nominations for top AFC executive positions have been revealed by the party in a late-night statement on Wednesday. This followed a month-long process that started on May 15 and wrapped up on June 13.
With support from 15 groups, the incumbent General Secretary of the AFC, Sherod Duncan, is heading the list of nominations for the Leader of the AFC post. Two groups each nominated two other candidates – Attorney Nigel Hughes and David Patterson, a former AFC General Secretary.

Notably, the incumbent Leader and co-founder of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan, is absent from all of the nomination categories. When the contract on Thursday for a comment on his absence and future within the party, Ramjattan indicated that he was “busy” before abruptly disconnecting the call.
Meanwhile, incumbent AFC Chair, Cathy Hughes, will be contesting alongside fellow parliamentarians Juretha Fernandes, David Patterson, and Sherod Duncan for that position.
For the Vice Chairman post, the candidates are Cathy Hughes, Arnold Sukhraj, Haimraj Rajkumar, David Patterson, Dereck Basdeo, Mark Goring, and Michael Carrington. The incumbent vice chair is Ricky Ramsaroop.

With regards to the General Secretary position, AFC’s other co-founder and former Leader, Raphael Trotman, who has been absent from public view for years, has been nominated alongside Ricky Ramsaroop, Dereck Basdeo, and Cathy Hughes.
According to the party, these key Executive positions will be complemented by 12 elected members of the AFC National Executive Committee (NEC), for which more than 60 party members are vying for a seat. In addition to these positions, all Regional Management Committee chairpersons will serve on the NEC thus ensuring regional representation.
The AFC National Conference later this month will see the participation of over 285 delegates representing the 10 regions across Guyana, its Chapters in the USA, Canada, UK, and the Caribbean as well as the Women For Change (WFC) and the Youth For Change (YFC).
This Conference is the highest decision-making forum of the party.

In a previous statement last month, the AFC said it “…looks forward to an exciting productive, empowering and collaborative Conference that will help shape the future direction of our party and our continued efforts to drive positive change in Guyana.”
At the last National Conference in 2022, Ramjattan returned as AFC Leader with Cathy Hughes elected as the party’s Chair and Duncan as GS.
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 after being forced to play a “submissive” role to the APNU during its tenure in office coupled with the loss of the 2020 elections, the AFC in 2022 signalled that it would not renew the Cummingsburg Accord. This was a result of the fallout from the electoral loss with many AFC members resigned over the years, accusing the party of being consumed by the PNC.
In fact, back in 2021, former AFC Parliamentarian Reynard Ward said the party is “…in a broken, abusive and one-sided relationship…” with its Coalition partner.
However, the AFC leadership seemed unfazed by this and went onto maintain working relations especially in the National Assembly with the PNC-led APNU.
Back in 2022, Ramjattan had stated that its decision to split from the APNU would not affect the AFC’s performance at the 2025 polls. (G-8)