Talks between APNU/AFC fail to take off

Revision of Cummingsburg Accord

As the country draws closer to inevitable elections, the revision of the Cummingsburg Accord has been delayed after talks between A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and Alliance For Change (AFC) failed to materialise.

It is understood that a meeting between the two coalition partners was supposed to have been held on Monday. According to a press release from APNU however, the promised meeting was cancelled.
“However, the two sides exchanged documents on the review of the Cummingsburg Accord and will meet at a date fixed after consideration of the documents by their respective leadership,” the statement added.
Questions have been raised whether the People’s National Congress (PNC) would offer AFC the same terms it offered them in 2015, when the accord was first signed. These questions took on a life of their own after the AFC’s wretched performance in Local Government Elections (LGE) in 2018.
Despite the AFC choosing Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan as its prime ministerial candidate in waiting, the PNC has shown a dogged preference for the incumbent Moses Nagamootoo.
Meanwhile, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) held their General Council Meeting on Saturday at Congress Place, where they were addressed by their leader, President David Granger.
In his address, Granger claimed that the coalition Government was “observing the rules and convention which govern Interim Administrations,” adding that “so as far as the Executive branch is concerned, we are still functional, we are still the Government.”
This comes even as Guyana is months overdue for elections. A No-Confidence Motion was passed against the Government on December 21 of last year. Article 106 of the Constitution stipulates that elections must be held within three months.
However, elections were not held and there was no resignation. Instead, Government went to court, unsuccessfully arguing that the No-Confidence Motion was not validly passed. The case reached the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), where the regional court ruled against the Government but stopped short of issuing an order fixing an election date.
Instead, CCJ President Justice Adrian Saunders had said that when the No-Confidence Motion was passed on December 21, 2019, Article 106 of the Constitution had immediately been activated.
GECOM was then taken before the courts after a challenge from accountant Christopher Ram sought an injunction against the current House-to-House Registration exercise. While acting Chief Justice Roxane George did not rule the exercise illegal, she had elucidated that the old Register of Registrants could not be scrapped, thus rendering the exercise unnecessary.

Inclusionary democracy
Another claim made by the President was that the People’s National Congress (PNC) believed in inclusionary democracy. This, however, comes after complaints from the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), about the way in which they have been treated by their coalition counterpart.
Amidst growing concerns last year, prior to the No-Confidence Motion, that the PNC was showing disregard and even disdain for the spirit and letter of agreements it signed with key coalition partners, political scientist and WPA executive Dr David Hinds had said the PNC must recognise that it cannot win a free and fair election on its own at this juncture in Guyana’s history, as its core support group is no longer emotionally attached to the party.
His comments came after concerns over the disregard and neglect shown to the concerns raised by other coalition partners about some of the decisions made by the David Granger Administration, particularly without their consultation and consent in some instances.
Meanwhile, the General Council also had reports for the last quarter being presented by the Campaign Managers of the ten administrative regions. The General Council is the second-highest decision-making forum of the party and meets once every quarter.