Opposition parties agree to mount “strategic campaign” against PPP

Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 July 2022, 0:24 by Denis Chabrol

The People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR)-led A Partnership for National Unity, the Alliance For Change and a number of small parties on Monday held talks to begin mapping a strategy to deal with Guyana’s “political crisis”.

PNCR General Secretary Geeta Chandan believed that the participation of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) in Monday’s talks signaled its eventual return to APNU from which it had broken away in 2020 over “disrespectful” treatment. However, WPA Executive Member David Hinds dismissed such an assertion, saying that Monday’s talks had nothing to do with this party’s future with APNU.

“There might be some form of indication that they will reenter, rejoin with us,” Ms Chandan told Demerara Waves. The Office of the Leader of the Opposition noted that “the APNU+AFC Coalition and the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) met to discuss the growing crisis in governance, democracy, and living conditions in Guyana.”

“There is no discussion about returning to the APNU between the APNU And the WPA at the moment. The meeting we attended today was a Joint Opposition Parties meeting. Not an APNU or Coalition meeting,” Dr Hinds told Demerara Waves Online News. He explained that the meeting was one of opposition parties to discuss pressing issues on which that they could cooperate and “stop the PPP (People’s Progressive Party) stampede of the rest of society.”

“All parties agreed that in response to the escalating political crisis in Guyana under the PPP, they must coordinate and collaborate to conduct a strategic campaign to rescue Guyana. The parties agreed that the crisis in Guyana is rooted in the PPP’s obsession with political domination, in its neglect for the problems and concerns of ordinary Guyanese, and in its zeal for self-aggrandizement by serving a narrow business cabal and cronies,” the Office of the Leader of the Opposition stated.

The opposition parties said they recommitted to engage in further discussions with the aim of taking Guyana back for the people of Guyana.

The PNCR was represented by party leader Aubrey Norton,  the General Secretary,  Chairman Shurwayne Holder; the WPA was represented by Dr Hinds and fellow executive member Tacuma Ogunseye; attending on behalf of the Guyana Nation Builders Party was Tabitha Sarabo-Halley.

Attending for the AFC were its leader Khemraj Ramjattan, Deputy Chairman Juretha Fernandes; AFC General Secretary Sherod Duncan and Ricky Ramsaroop; for the National Front Alliance were party leader Keith Scott and Sheik Hassan.