PNCR-APNU says never proposed naming coalition PM candidate to AFC

Last Updated on Thursday, 19 June 2025, 22:42 by Writer

The People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR)-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) on Thursday debunked claims by the Alliance For Change (AFC) that it had also wanted to name the prime ministerial candidate in any coalition pact.

“The AFC statement is misleading in an important regard. APNU never proposed that it must name the PM candidate for the coalition. Never,” PNCR-APNU spokesman, Sherwood Lowe said in a brief WhatsApp comment to the media.

Top AFC officials did not immediately comment on the controversy over the PM’s candidate when they were contacted for a response.

Mr Lowe added that APNU told the AFC, through the unnamed intermediary, that due to the “lateness of the hour”, APNU had decided to “select its own PM candidate.” “Let me stress: to select APNU’s PM candidate, not the coalition’s PM candidate,” he clarified.

The PNCR-APNU on Wednesday confirmed that AFC Executive Member Juretha Fernandes would be its PM candidate.

The AFC has since cancelled the party memberships of Ms Fernandes, Sherod Duncan and Deonarine “Ricky” Ramsaroop, after failing to contact them for explanations and later independently confirming that they are now APNU members.

This latest controversy was sparked off by the AFC’s statement on Wednesday that in response to its latest proposal dated Monday, June 16, 2025, that APNU responded saying that it also wanted to name the PM candidate, a position the smaller political organisation rejected. “We were informed on Tuesday 18th that this proposal was rejected. On this occasion APNU decided that they must also name the AFC’s PM candidate contrary to the established protocol of the negotiations. This demand is totally unacceptable to the AFC,” the party said.

Mr Lowe personally believed that “an accord could have been signed months ago” if the AFC had stuck close to its very first proposal at the time that included 65 (APNU)/35 (AFC) and had agreed that APNU should name the Representative of the List, “among other sensible” options, instead of asking for a 60 percent stake in the coalition and “changing its mind on who should name” the Representative of the List.

On that point, AFC Chairman David Patterson said that from his knowledge, the position always was that the Representative of the List would come from the party that did not have the presidential candidate.

The Representative of the List is the person who ultimately has to communicate with the National Assembly and the Guyana Elections Commission about who would be members of the National Assembly including recall and replacement of parliamentarians.