APNU+AFC cagey on contesting Local Govt Elections but optimistic about popular vote

Last Updated on Tuesday, 18 October 2022, 14:09 by Denis Chabrol

Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton on Tuesday skirted questions about whether the coalition of A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) would be contesting Local Government Elections that might be held early next year, but he expressed confidence about clinching the popular vote.

The coalition continues to demand that the voters list be cleansed to remove the names of deceased persons and emigrants before local or general elections, but Mr Norton refused to say whether APNU+AFC would contest the local polls for the 11 town councils and 70 neighbourhood councils. He said now was not the time to disclose whether the coalition would go to the electorate and indicated that such a decision would not necessarily be communicated through the media but through the political machinery.

“The question of elections have to do with strategy and tactic and we think strategically we don’t need to say it at this time. We know what we need to say to our membership. We know we have to do our preparation. We would do that but we will decide what we say at the right time in terms of participation or non-participation,” he told a news conference.

Mr Norton said “we know” that his coalition would win several municipalities such as Georgetown, Linden, New Amsterdam and Bartica- considered its historical strongholds- and so “your popularity is intact.” In that regard, he said the People’s Progressive Party would be defeated. “They can win a number of NDCs (Neighbourhood Democratic Council) but lose the popular vote because they were beaten” in APNU+AFC strongholds.

The Opposition Leader did not address the question of losing the majority at the individual NDCs.

At the 2018 Local Government Elections, the PPP had won at least 20 of the 80 Neighbourhood Councils.

Mr  Norton said the AFC has not informed APNU that it would be pulling out of the coalition at the end of 2022, an indication that he expects the two parties to jointly contest the local government elections.

The Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, Retired Justice Claudette Singh has written to Local Government Minister Nigel Dharamlall informing him that that election management agency would be able to conducted the local polls. The latest version of the workplan allows the Commission to hold the elections at the earliest during the first week of March 2023.