The recent movement of members within the two main parties that form the parliamentary opposition has been described acts of grudge and greed by General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Dr Bharrat Jagdeo.
Over the past week, three members of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Juretha Fernandes, Deonarine “Ricky” Ramsaroop and Sherod Duncan abandoned their party and threw their support behind the Peoples National Congress -led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) to contest the upcoming elections. In fact, Fernandes has been identified to be the running mate of the PNC/APNU’s presidential candidate, Aubrey Norton.
Meanwhile, Amanza Walton-Desir of the PNC/APNU has resigned from the party and moved to form her own political organisation. Walton-Desir cited issues with the existing leadership of the PNC/APNU as reasons for leaving.
In the case of the AFC members, that party’s leadership was unaware of their support for the PNC/APNU and after the news was leaked via the media, the Nigel Hughes-led grouping cancelled their memberships.
On Thursday, Jagdeo surmised that all these movements have stemmed from each individual’a inability to secure a prominent position within their previous political party.
“In the opposition camp, what you see playing out is grudge politics, greed politics. Juretha and Sherod lost the leadership contest in their party, they held a grudge the last few months [and] they have been running down the other members of the AFC claiming the Nigel Hughes faction is very lazy,” Jagdeo said
Recognising that the AFC will not have many seats or even take part in the upcoming elections, Jagdeo pointed out that “they have switched camps to try to secure themselves and their Members of Parliament position.”
The movements occur even as the AFC and APNU were involved in negotiations to coalesce ahead of the 2025 polls. However, even those talks have been centered around the sharing of positions within the government, as opposed to policies.
Despite the movements however, Jagdeo said the opposition is still no match for the PPP.
“When you are a political party, you look for momentum and growth, you want to bring people to you who are not a part of your camp. If you are using people who are traditionally part of your camp to move to another part of your camp then you’re not really focusing on addition, you’re just like stirring the same pot,” he emphasised.
“They are not making any difference in any configuration that they come up with and desperation might force them together,” he added.
Over the years and as of recent, several high ranking members of the PNC/APNU have stepped over to the PPP.
Jagdeo said beyond those publicised names, there are thousands of regular citizens who have switched to supporting the PPP and its transformational projects.
“In politics, it is about bringing people to your vision, it is about convincing people that your plans and vision for the country will benefit their lives,” the PPP General Secretary noted.
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