NOTHING BEFORE ITS TIME

Apr 21, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

It should not come as a surprise that the AFC is on the point of forging an arrangement with factions of the Peoples National Congress. The AFC’s consistent position has been that it will not forge an alliance with either the PNCR or the PPP but that it remained open to such arrangements with defectors from both parties.
It remained cautiously open to the possibility of a joint opposition alliance but indicated that it preferred to incorporate within its ranks persons who were willing to part ways with the two main political parties. This is not anything novel in so far as the AFC is concerned because the AFC’s was formed as a result of defections from both the PNC and the PPP.
After Jimmy Carter threw up his hands in despair at the failure of the PPP to be more accommodating towards the main opposition, the idea of a center force emerged. Such a force could deny the ruling party a majority in the National Assembly and force them to make concessions akin to what takes placed in a divided Congress.
To become an effective center force the AFC however may need to move beyond its dominant middle class base and this may explain its present moves to out together a coalition of like-minded.
Part of the strategy as mentioned would be to encourage defections from other parties and this is already happening. The AFC has gobbled up members of ROAR and has pitch forked them into prominent roles within their campaign to win this year’s elections. It has also secured the support of many disgruntled members of the PPP who are now firmly on board the AFC’s election bandwagon. Doing the same with the PNCR was always on the card especially since the PNCR remained badly divided because of the perceived sponsorship by the leadership of the party of one candidate who was contesting for the post of the party’s presidential nominee.
The existing leadership was under challenge long before that. The PNCR opened up itself to such challenges by portraying itself as a party that was open to internal democracy. After the problems that occurred when Vincent Alexander and later Winston Murray who had signaled challenges to the leadership, the party remained torn and divided.
The process of electing a presidential candidate was similarly projected as the party engaging in a democratic process. To even the most casual observer, it was however clear that the PNCR was in deep crisis and that there remains a very powerful faction within the PNCR which is displeased by the existing leadership and more so outraged by their belief that the party’s leadership maneuvered someone to contest for the party’s presidential candidate who had never before been known to have held a position within the executive of the party or within any of the governments that were formed by the PNC in its heyday.
This led one faction to put forward a candidate who came within a cat’s whiskers of becoming the party’s nominee.
Just before the final vote was taken there was an incident that raised eyebrows within one camp challenging for leadership. The leadership of the party was again accused of promoting one particular candidate.
The AFC has recognized that there is a large faction within the PNCR who are not pleased with what took place. And the AFC is attempting to improve on its spectacular performance in 2006 when after one year as political party it did the unthinkable and secured five seats in an otherwise highly polarized elections.
To do what established parties such as the WPA, ROAR, GAP and the United Force were unable to do since 1992 was a remarkable achievement on the part of the Alliance for Change.
Obviously, the AFC is not going to rush into any alliance carelessly, but the fact that it has had initial contacts with a faction associated with the PNCR indicates that it is serious about being consistent as regards alliance politics.
In the meantime, the PNCR attempts to form a board based coalition seems to be running into problems beyond its control. One person has pulled out of the talks because of some criticisms that he faced for daring to suggest that the PNC never won an election. Another of the main coalition leaders is now seriously ill in hospital, leaving only the WPA which itself seems to be fragmenting.
With the PNCR’s Big Tent not now likely to be erected, all eyes will be on the AFC to see how successful they can be in incorporating the faction of the PNCR that now seems willing to be courted.

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NOTHING BEFORE ITS TIME

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