With news of serious divisions and leadership challenges, Leader of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) David Granger has called on the Justice For All Party (JFAP) and the Working Peoples Alliance (WPA) to return to the coalition.
In August 2020, the WPA resigned from the APNU, citing the dictatorial nature of the PNC. Then in September 2020, the Savitri Sharma-led JFAP submitted its resignation.
In a letter to Granger, the WPA said that since the formation of APNU there have been an active sidelining of the smaller parties.
Similarly, Sharma had accused Granger and the PNC of “using and discarding” the smaller parties within the coalition.
When APNU selected its parliamentary list for the 12th Parliament, the JFAP was not given a seat. Similarly, the WPA was only afforded one representative and that person, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley was handpicked by Granger without consultation with the WPA. In fact, the PNCR faction of the APNU took 22 of the 31 seats for itself and sidelined the other parties in the APNU.
In a PNC-organised interview today, Granger admitted that he was responsible for selecting the current batch of parliamentarians.
“The extractions were in accordance with the lists which were presented to me and in my judgment, I made [the] decisions to ensure we had the type of cohort in the National Assembly which could fulfill the mission of the APNU+AFC,” Granger said.
“I believe I acted correctly,” the former president added.
Granger further insinuated that the JFAP and WPA were only concerned about positions, pointing out that the resignations came after the 2020 elections when the APNU+AFC was ousted from office.
“It was about the seats…but the APNU is not driven by occupancy of seats, it is driven by service to people,” he stated.
Nevertheless, Granger expressed hopes that the JFAP and WPA would return to the APNU.
“I would like them to come back to the partnership at some stage or the other,” he noted.
