[www.inewsguyana.com] – Following the resignation of three key members of the Alliance for Change (AFC), it has been revealed that they wanted the AFC to join forces with A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) for the next general elections – a suggestion which was met with much resistance from other AFC members.
This is according to the Chairman of the AFC’s New York and New Jersey Chapter, Dr Rohan Somar. In a statement, Dr. Somar said that the three defectors – Professor Tarron Khemraj, Professor Euclid Rose and Rab Mukhraj – were also opposed to the AFC Parliamentarians voting in favour of the supporting Bills for the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project.
“Their recent staunch position on the Amaila Hydro issue and wanting to have the AFC blindly join APNU on all issues; was resisted by the national AFC leadership. The NY-NJ Chapter’s leadership also resisted the manner in which they, especially Euclid Rose, was almost violently opposed to the stance taken by our AFC Parliamentarians whose position of allowing the Amaila Project to go for an IDB due diligence we found thoroughly sensible and perfectly in order,” Dr. Somar said in a statement.
However, he maintains that the NY – NJ Chapter is still alive and well.
“We are also aware that they wanted, against the wishes of the majority in the Chapter, the AFC to align with PNC-APNU and to prepare to go in that format for the next Elections. They found the Chapter’s resistance to that hard to crack, and hence walked into the arms of the PNC-APNU. We rate one of the AFC’s founding principles very highly, namely, that the AFC must be independent from the PPP and PNC/APNU. If that founding principle is not upheld or observed, then and only then will you see the demise of this NY-NJ AFC Chapter and the AFC nationally.”
According to Dr. Somar, the recent defectors are not the first to have resigned, and will not be the last.
