Former AFC executive members demand reinstatement; Trotman says they “voluntarily separated themselves”

Last Updated on Sunday, 22 June 2025, 19:49 by Writer

Three former executive members of the Alliance For Change (AFC), who are now associated with A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), are demanding that they be reinstated or the party would face legal action because their removal was unconstitutional, they said in a letter to the AFC’s executive.

“Guided by the AFC’s Constitution, we demand the immediate retraction of our expulsions including Mr. (Kenny) Valadares’s. Failing to do so, will result in our taking legal action,” Ms Juretha Fernandes, Mr Deonarine Ramsaroop and Mr Sherod Duncan said in their letter to the executive. They said Mr Valadares was expelled for expressing concern about the AFC’s governance.

APNU has already confirmed that Ms Fernandes would be its prime ministerial candidate, unless she voluntarily decides to give it up.

AFC General Secretary, Raphael Trotman on Sunday told Demerara Waves Online News that they were “never expelled” from the party but, instead, they “voluntarily separated themselves” by becoming candidates for the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR)-led APNU. “They were deemed to have forfeited their membership on the basis of their having voluntarily signed up as candidates for another contesting political party, and without informing the AFC that they had done so,” he said.

Mr Trotman said the trio was free to take the matter to court, as the decision would be of “great benefit” to a lot of organisations. He reiterated that the AFC wishes them well in their “new incarnations”.

He explained that the AFC read in the press that they had signed on with another party, were upset that they gave no notice, but respected their right of voluntary separation. “We have moved on.”

Ms Fernandes, Mr Ramsaroop and Mr Duncan, who are still parliamentarians for the opposition coalition of A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC), are relying on Article 5(7) of the AFC’s Constitution that states that “The National Executive may expel from the Party any person who while being a member, retains or accepts membership in another political party or movement, provided that in every case any such person shall be given one month within which to resign either from the AFC Party or from the other party or movement.” Saying that only the AFC’s National Executive Committee has the authority to expel a party member, they said their expulsions “distressingly manifest the AFC’s leadership contempt for the Constitution in bypassing the NEC to execute these expulsions.”

They said “even if it is somehow misinterpreted that we had joined another party”, the AFC’s Constitution clearly states that they must be given one month within which to resign from the AFC or from the other party.

They rejected the AFC’s reference to them as “former members” because none of them had tendered their resignation, “hence, we remain fully paid-up members of the Party. Ms Fernandes, Mr Deonarine and Mr Duncan said the AFC leaders who issued the statement without requisite consent of the NEC, are “fully aware of our many internal and public statements of commitments to remaining members of the AFC”.

Meanwhile, AFC Leader Nigel Hughes, on this Sunday’s (June 22, 2025) 6 p.m. edition of Caribbean Tea, would be saying that “there was not a single day after my election they did not participate in acts intended to undermine my management of the Alliance For Change.” Though they were coopted on the AFC’s Executive, he said they “very, very rarely” attended meetings.