By Michael Younge
General Secretary of the Alliance for Change Marlon Williams today confirmed that ‘talks’ have begun with the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) which are aimed at addressing the party’s concerns about the Cummingsburg Accord that was signed on February 14, 2015.
Williams, speaking with Inews today, said that the party’s leader Raphael Trotman had dispatched the formal letter to trigger the talks a “long time back” as was mandated by the National Executive Committee which is the second highest decision-making forum of the AFC.
“We are already engaged and we are in discussions”, Williams said before explaining that the talks are expected to continue over a specified period of time. He declined to state how long that period could last and instead pointed Inews to the party’s release on the matter which had called for talks and a review to be completed by February 14. That date had elapsed without any substantive progress being accomplished.
Asked if he was satisfied with the engagements between the APNU and AFC thus far, Williams declined to offer any assessment of the process.
“I think we will be in a far better position to give an assessment at the end of those talks”, the AFC General Secretary contended as he stayed clear of offering any analysis that could signal the party’s displeasure or satisfaction with what has transpired so far.
The talks are being seen as pivotal because of the divisions which has arisen within the coalition and the generally held views of many political analysts and commentators that the AFC has lost its way and is being out-maneuvered by the PNC-led APNU. The party had said that it hoped to examine several areas of the partnership that needed to be re-examined and re-defined to provide clarity.
