The Alliance for Change’s (AFC) announcement that they will be contesting the Local Government Elections (LGE) in November 2018, separate from the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is part of a ploy.
This is according to the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) on Sunday evening via a press statement.
“… the intent can be gleaned from its public statement in which it indicated that it will not contest in all of the Local Authority areas. The trickery is that they will come into certain PPP strongholds in which APNU will not contest, as a Trojan horse, pretending to be independent of the APNU in order to garner some sympathy votes in these areas,” the Opposition has asserted.
According to the PPP, the AFC has consistently taken public positions on issues, attempting to fool the populace, only to strengthen its negotiation leverage with APNU.
“The deceitful, unscrupulous politics of the Alliance for Change (AFC) has reared its ugly head once again. This political party, since collating with the APNU in 2015, has adopted inconsistent, flip-flopping and deceptive political postures as it struggles to survive as a relevant political force. We have seen how it flip-flopped on many issues in the past, including; the parking meter contract, VAT on education, the sugar industry and even before they entered into the Coalition, Khemraj Ramjattan is on public record saying that the AFC will never enter into a Coalition with the APNU/PNC because if it does so, it will be ‘dead meat’”.
As such, the Opposition is maintaining that if the smaller party within the Coalition believes they can pull off “such clumsy stunts” then it is illustrative of the lack of respect which they have for the intelligence of the Guyanese electorate.
“We call upon every single Guyanese not to allow themselves to be used by this moribund cabal of untrustworthy politicians, grasping at the last straw for their survival” said the PPP.
On Sunday, the AFC disclosed that they will not be contesting the upcoming LGE with APNU.
Prior to this announcement, the AFC had said it would contest LGE with APNU.
The Party is now saying that the decision to no longer contest together was reached following inconclusive negotiations with APNU.
However, the AFC outlined that it applies only for LGE 2018 and does not, in any way, affect the APNU+AFC Coalition Government, nor does it change the AFC’s position on coalition politics at the national level.
The AFC said it remains, and reaffirms that it is, committed to the APNU+AFC Coalition.
Further, the party’s Management Committee has resolved into the LGE Campaign Committee and is chaired by David Patterson who has been appointed Campaign Director.
Ms Juretha Fernandes has been appointed Deputy Campaign Director.
Appointments to other positions will be done subsequently.
The AFC has stated that it is in full preparation mode for LGE.
The party is currently determining which municipalities and constituencies it will strategically contest as it does not envision contesting in each Neighbourhood Democratic Council and in every constituency of all municipalities until subsequent election cycles.
