Justice For All Party pulls out of APNU

Last Updated on Saturday, 5 September 2020, 12:42 by Denis Chabrol

Leader of the Justice for All Party, Chandra Narine Sharma speaking with President David Granger. (Demerara Waves picture)

The Justice For All Party (JFAP) has bailed from the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR)-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).

In a letter dated September 1, 2020 PNCR Leader, David Granger, the JFAP informed him that the time had come for the party to withdraw from APNU which it described as “the umbrella organisation” for the PNCR and small parties.

“Like any other organisation, APNU has had its strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures. The Guyana political landscape is changing significantly and it demands a reexamination of roles and relationships,” JFAP General Secretary, Savitree Singh Sharma told Mr. Granger.

The JFAP and the Mr. Keith Scott’s National Front Alliance (NFA) were not selected to sit in the opposition benches, with Mr. Granger saying that parties needed to garner at least 7,000 votes to secure one of the 31 opposition parliamentary seats.

The JFAP is the second party to have departed the coalition after the March 2, 2020 election defeat at the polls. The first party to leave the five party coalition was the Working People’s Alliance (WPA).   That party said that transparency in leadership and the right to select its own members of parliament are the reason it departed in August, 2020.

The WPA’s Chairman, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley subsequently resigned from her party but remained as a parliamentarian for the APNU+Alliance For Change coalition.

The APNU is now made up of the PNCR and the Guyana Action Party which is represented in the opposition benches.