The Alliance For Change (AFC) on Friday distanced the party from a senior member’s diatribe against former president and its coalition partner, David Granger.
Imran Khan, in a recent statement, berated Granger for excluding Chairwoman of the Peoples National Congress Reform (PNC/R) Volda Lawrence from the coalition’s current batch of parliamentarians.
“The post-election treatment meted out to Ms Volda Lawrence by her own People’s National Congress is unjust, unconscionable and wrong. There is no sugarcoating it. Ms Lawrence was shockingly and unceremoniously denied a seat in the National Assembly. This is an egregious wrong which must be corrected post-haste,” Khan expressed.
He further noted that “In Guyana, Members of Parliament are not elected directly by the people. They are in fact selected from a predetermined list, solely by the Leader of that list. In the case of the APNU+AFC coalition, the Leader of the list is Mr David Granger.”
Asked whether the comments made by Khan is an indication of the AFC’s views on the matter, party leader Khemraj Ramjattan contended “that is not the statement of the [AFC]”.
“Mr Khan, in accordance with the very liberal and democratic attitude that the [AFC] has, has given his statement,” Ramjattan asserted.
“The [AFC]…would like to disassociate from that…but he [Khan] has made his statement, and a lot of statements are made from many members of the AFC which sometimes are not in accordance with the official, formal position of the [AFC],” he added.
AFC’s General Secretary David Patterson also posited that the APNU had its own selection process which they employed in selecting which members will represent them in the National Assembly. “We respect it,” Patterson said.
Since losing the March 2 General and Regional Elections, relations between the APNU and AFC coalition, which was already shaky, took a nosedive for the worst. The coalition has been marred by multiple resignations and even broken promises.
One such resignation was former AFC General Secretary David Patterson, who resigned from his party position back in September in the wake of a dispute over the election of a Vice Chairman for the Region Four Regional Democratic Council (RDC).
APNU, which has a history of infringements against the smaller party, locked the AFC out from the Vice Chair position despite a previous agreement.
The previous agreement that Patterson helped craft had stipulated that the AFC would get the Vice Chair positions in Regions Seven and Four. But following the election of APNU candidate, former Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Captain Daniel Seeram, it was not to be.
However, Patterson has since somersaulted on his decision and withdrawn his resignation.
Last month, prominent Linden AFC party member Vladimir Glasgow resigned from the party. In his resignation letter, he had cited that the party lost its way and had been consumed by the People’s National Congress (PNC).
Glasgow’s resignation comes hot on the heels of AFC member and former Region Five Councillor Abel Seetaram’s resignation late in October. In his resignation letter, Seetaram had also cited the party having lost its way and being subsumed by PNC.
Former AFC Member of Parliament Audwin Rutherford also resigned in October of this year. He had also said that the AFC has lost its independent voice and with it, its principles.
Meanwhile, Granger himself has come under attack from members of his own party, particularly embattled PNC member James Bond, who had lambasted the former President over the exclusion of Lawrence from Parliament.
