PNCR, AFC mull mediator to rescue coalition talks

Last Updated on Tuesday, 1 April 2025, 18:50 by Writer

Coalition talks between the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) are in limbo on who the presidential candidate and what the allocation of parliamentary seats and positions should be, but the two sides could resort to a mediator in the coming days, multiple sources said Tuesday.

High-level sources, who did not want to be quoted, said that with the March 31 deadline that the political parties had set themselves to reach agreement now expired, they have given themselves seven days to resolve difficulties. If that fails, they would then refer the issues to a mediator that is acceptable to both sides., the sources said.

“We guess APNU will respond in due course to AFC’s requests,” a senior AFC source told Demerara Waves Online News on Monday, adding that engagements between the two sides “discussed nothing substantive, but reset relations”.

Sources said the AFC’s proposal to the PNCR contains more details than those that the AFC released in a public media statement. The PNCR-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has since asked AFC to dispatch its proposals in writing for further consideration.

Sources said the PNCR was digging in its heels on rejecting the AFC’s proposal for 40 percent of the allocation of positions across the board and at every level, as was the case in 2015 on the basis that the smaller party does not have the support base to demand such a huge chunk of the administration ranging from ministers, parliamentarians, boards, commissions and other decision-making fora. PNCR Leader Aubrey Norton last weekend alluded to the value that his party brings to a coalition, suggesting that that could not be ignored. “We are well aware that we are better together. We are also well aware that we carry the burden of the work,” he told his party’s General Council.

On the question of how the PNCR-led APNU would justify its stance towards the AFC when there are several parties that are now under APNU’s umbrella, a source said the PNCR would have to make space for them after the general and regional elections. Against that backdrop, the source said any relationship with the AFC would have to take into account that fact.

Following the 2015 elections, political parties such as the Justice For All Party and National Front Alliance that could not on their own win 5,000 to 6,000 votes- the equivalent of one parliamentary seat- were given ministerial positions in the APNU+AFC cabinet. That had caused some consternation in the PNCR which had believed that even the AFC did not merit getting important ministerial portfolios.

While the AFC is demanding that its Leader, Nigel Hughes, or another person acceptable to both parties be the presidential candidate of an APNU+AFC coalition, his party is willing to settle with him as the prime ministerial candidate.

A senior AFC source also said if that party does not get the presidential candidacy, it wants the chose the Representative of the List.