AFC may contest local govt elections alone

Last Updated on Monday, 15 January 2018, 19:12 by Denis Chabrol

The headquarters of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Railway Road, Kitty.

The Alliance For Change (AFC) might contest local government elections later this year, but a final decision rests with further deliberations within the party, party leader, Raphael Trotman said Monday.

“There is a strong body of opinion that we should go it alone,” he told a news conference.

He said the party would further discuss the matter internally in Guyana as well as with other stakeholders abroad, but one of the major reasons for possibly contesting the local government polls alone is the need to preserve its identity.

“I would say there is really one argument which has been quite resounding- it is about our identity and so it is not a case of us not liking our coalition partner but there are people who believe that the AFC was a more grassroots party, stimulating independent persons to campaign, etc;” he said.

The AFC at the last Local Government Elections had been peeved that it was dominated by the he People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR)- dominated A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) instead of applying the 40-60 formula in keeping with the Valentine’s Day 2015 political pact known as the Cummingsburg Accord.

Touching on whether the coalition between the AFC and APNU was working well, Trotman noted that the Cummingsburg Accord pact was working well. He declined to discuss  the adverse aspects of the coalition’s workings, but said the AFC sees areas that should be strengthened.

Trotman said despite lingering concerns, the AFC’s membership has been growing and the party would be relying on both new media and face-to-face community outreaches.