APNU+AFC takes steps to recall Geeta Chandan-Edmond for endorsing PPP’s Irfaan Ali

Last Updated on Saturday, 14 June 2025, 19:07 by Writer

Amid uncertainty about whether there would be more parliamentary sittings before Parliament is dissolved to make way for the September 1, 2025 general and regional elections, the opposition coalition has begun moves to recall Geeta Chandan-Edmond who used her opposition seat to announce her defection to the People’s Progressive Party (PPP).

“The APNU has activated the system of recall and it requires writing to the Representative of the List and the process flows from there,” APNU parliamentarian, Ganesh Mahipaul told a news conference on Thursday. He said Ms Chandan-Edmond, a former PNCR General Secretary, did not resign from that party and “by virtue of that we have to activate the step to remove her.”

President Irfaan Ali has named September 1, 2025 as elections day but he is yet to dissolve Parliament.

The Representative of the List, former People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) and former APNU+AFC presidential candidate David Granger, is now required to write the Clerk of the National Assembly informing him of the decision to recall Ms Geeta Chandan-Edmond and her replacement. Mr Granger also has to write to the Chief Elections Officer of the Guyana Elections Commission informing him of the replacement’s name to be extracted from the APNU+AFC list of elected representatives.

Mr Mahipaul said the PNCR’s Central Executive Committee met and “decided that she can no longer represent our interests”. “I think Geeta betrayed the PNCR because the PNCR extracted her to represent the PNCR’s interest and, for me, she betrayed the PNCR. She betrayed me because I am a part of the PNCR and I have also voted for the APNU and placed her there so she wasn’t extracted on her vote; she was extracted on several votes including mine,” he said.

Ms Chandan-Edmond on June 2, 2025, in her contribution to the debate on the CARICOM Arrest Warrant Bill, endorsed President Ali for a second term. “Let the record reflect tonight: I stand proudly with President Irfaan Ali. I stand with his leadership, I stand with his vision and I stand with his steadfast commitment to this country and I say to everyone of you in this House and out of this House that President Ali has earned a second term and Guyana deserves nothing less,” she had told National Assembly.

While she had first signaled her new-found political allegiance by endorsing the 2025 National Budget during its debate, PNCR Leader Aubrey Norton had said that it would not have been the best thing to recall her. “It was felt at the time that there is not much to be had to go and recall Geeta. First of all, the PPP would have portrayed it in their own way. We were well-aware of the direction but we thought that it was not in the best interest of our party to go recalling her at the tenth hour,” he had said.

PNCR members Daniel Seeram and Samuel Sandy, who are the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the PNCR’s stronghold of Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), have also defected to the PPP while still holding their elected offices on behalf of APNU+AFC.