Norton mum on fate of AFC parliamentarians

Last Updated on Tuesday, 22 November 2022, 15:59 by Denis Chabrol

Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton and a number of APNU and AFC parliamentarians. At extreme left is AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan.

Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton on Wednesday declined to comment on the fate of the nine Alliance For Change (AFC) parliamentarians after that party withdraws from the coalition with his People’s National Congress Reform-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).

“When we are formally communicated with , we will then make the decisions as to what we will do. There are a number of options that exist and we will at the right time respond,” he told a news conference when asked whether the AFC lawmakers would be recalled. Pressed on whether that would be one of the options, he said that would be hinged on the announcement and the situation at that time.

Mr Norton said he has so far received no official communication from AFC about its decision to exit the seven-year old Valentine’s Day 2015 political agreement styled the Cummingsburg Accord but that party was free to leave the coalition. “We continue to believe in coalition, we will work with coalition partners, we continue to work with the WPA (Working People’s Alliance), we will continue to do coalition work. We, however, will live with what the reality is. If the AFC decides it will go its way, so be it. We do not intend to beg anyone to stay in the coalition,” he said.

For its part, AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan has said his parliamentarians would be taking its own positions on issues and backing APNU on others such as the need for a clean voters list and the use of a biometric system to verify electors identities at polling stations.

Mr Ganesh Mahipaul, a People’s National Congress Reform Central Committee member and APNU parliamentarian, sought to down-play the impact of the AFC’s impending withdrawal from the coalition.  He said it was merely an electoral alliance. “I’m not aware that the AFC has detached itself or is detaching itself. From my communication with members in the AFC, I’m aware – and knowing also what happens in the APNU- that the agreement between APNU and AFC it will expire on the 31st of December 2022 and what was said to me is that there would obviously have to be a new agreement, a new discussion so that there can be a new friendship,” he said, adding that talks would continue about coalition politics that could lead to a new agreement.

Mr Norton, who is also Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform and APNU’s Chairman, declined to say whether the WPA was closer to rejoining the APNU.

The  WPA, which walked away from APNU following the March 2020 general elections, has complained publicly about the lack of consultations in APNU about political and government policy-making. The AFC has not hidden its displeasure about APNU’s refusal to give up the Vice Chairmanship of the Region Four and Region 10 Councils.

The AFC’s then executive member Charandass Persaud and a governing APNU+AFC parliamentarian, had voted in favour of a People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC)-sponsored no-confidence motion in 2017 that had effectively resulted in a hamstrung David Granger-led coalition administration until elections had been eventually called in March 2020.