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TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

Mar 08, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Those within the Joint Opposition who are still hoping that there will be negotiations as to who will be the consensus candidate for a broad-based opposition coalition are out of sync with reality.
There is not going to be any negotiations about a consensus candidate. The PNCR is not going to negotiate with any marginal forces in the country about choosing a candidate around which broad-based support can be built.
The PNCR has moved on from that position. Any such decision would have had to have been made before the PNCR held its town hall-styled meetings over the past months.

The PNCR did not go through that long winding primary process to select a presidential candidate only to then have to engage in negotiations about a consensus opposition candidate.
The PNCR has elected a presidential candidate, not a candidate to negotiate with anyone. The PNCR is not going to budge; it has a non-negotiable position. The marginal opposition parties have been presented with a virtual fait accompli. It is a “take it or leave it” situation.
Those who are hoping for negotiations are wasting their time.

The door may still be open for a big tent arrangement but as it was in the run up to the 2006 elections, this tent will have to be the PNCR tent. Those interested in joining will have to abide by the PNCR terms.
The issue of the consensus candidate will not be up for negotiation. The PNCR has a presidential candidate and therefore it is not going to now say to its supporters that this candidate may have to give way to some other person who the joint opposition, minus the AFC, would like to represent the proposed broad- based coalition.
The AFC is of course out of the reckoning. It too has selected a presidential candidate, and even a prime ministerial candidate. It is not likely to upset this plan by entering into any plans for a pre-election coalition.
The marginal parties who are hoping to piggy back on the PNCR support to breathe life into their political lungs are not in tune with reality. The PNCR will welcome them but only on the PNCR own terms. This is how the PNCR has always operated. It has always been a take it or leave situation.
In 1968, the United Force was not prepared to take it and so it left. And Forbes Burnham made a decision that never again he would lead the PNC into an election coalition.
The PNCR is likely to return to that position after the failed attempt to build a broad-based coalition for the last elections. The PNCR does not have the liberty of time to now enter into negotiations about a broad-based coalition that would require negotiations about a consensus candidate.
The PNCR by electing a presidential candidate has effectively closed the door to any such negotiations and those who do not recognise this are in some other political world.
The PNCR is also not going to risk what happened to the PPP when it tried to have a joint opposition slate for the 1992 elections.
The PNCR is fully aware of who were the elements that decided that they could not live with a PPP consensus candidate and they are not going to be lured into any similar situations.
It has elected a candidate and in still keeping the door open to a big tent arrangement, is making it clear that the PNCR will be the largest party in any such arrangement and that it has already selected a leader.
Those who are looking to find a way back from oblivion, have to accept the PNCR candidate. It is a “take it or leave it” situation. That is how it has always been with the PNCR.

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