AFC ditched PNCR-APNU over concerns about Norton’s electability, unmet demands

Last Updated on Friday, 18 April 2025, 21:47 by Writer

The Alliance For Change (AFC) decided to abandon the idea of jointly contesting this year’s general elections with the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR)-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), saying evidence shows its leader, Aubrey Norton is not electable.

Sources said the AFC decided to go to the polls alone after its polls and the views of ordinary Guyanese show that the PNCR-APNU leader “lacks that special appeal needed to really win votes over.” The AFC credited Mr Norton with possessing skills in politics and leadership, but said he would not connect well enough with the wider population to rally national support and win an election.

The AFC maintained that anyone APNU picked as its presidential candidate must show, through scientific polls, that it could actually pull off a victory to unseat the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC), in response to the larger party’s insistence that it must name the person to lead the coalition into the next elections.

The PNCR, which is the most dominant party in APNU, passed a congressional resolution that Mr Norton is the presidential candidate and only he alone would decide whether to yield to someone else. AFC had proposed its leader, Nigel Hughes as the coalition’s presidential or prime ministerial candidate.

As a spin-off from their failure to settle on where the presidential candidate should be drawn from, the APNU and AFC could not find common ground on which of them the Representative of the List should be drawn from. That person plays a crucial role in determining who should be parliamentarians.

The sources also said the AFC disagreed that if the coalition won the next elections, the president and prime minister would decide on the ministerial portfolios of the latter. Instead, the party wanted it to be embedded in a memorandum of understanding and made public before going into the next elections. Under the 2015-2020 APNU+AFC administration, then Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo had had very limited portfolios and influence, something the AFC told APNU it wanted to avoid a repeat of.

Another major area of disagreement between APNU and AFC that led to the breakdown of talks and ultimately the parties having to contest the elections separately, was the intractable position taken by both sides over the allocation of parliamentary seats, ministerial appointments, and appointments to statutory boards and commissions. The APNU held to its desire for 70 percent and giving AFC 30 percent, while AFC said it would settle for 40 percent and the remaining 60 to APNU.

Sources had previously told Demerara Waves Online News that APNU was ensuring that it had sufficient seats for the small affiliate parties.

The APNU and AFC, according to the sources, were at loggerheads over which ministries they would be assigned if they had contested jointly and won the elections. The AFC objected to APNU’s desire to take control of the ministries of Human Services and Social Security, Local Government and Public Works and, instead, said it deserved at least one of them.

The two sides apparently had no qualms with APNU taking up ministerial responsibility for the ministries of Finance, and Foreign Affairs.

While the AFC on Thursday said it was about to map the way forward to go to the polls alone, it did not close the door to a possible deal before Nomination Day.

Similarly, PNCR-APNU left the door open to returning to the negotiating table. “The PNCR and APNU remain committed to discussing and working with all interested parties in establishing a coalition government to take Guyana forward. As such, should the AFC wish to re-engage APNU in coalition talks or in any joint endeavor, we stand willing and ready,” the PNCR-APNU said.