AFC, APNU looking to use combination of approaches to Local Govt. polls …could see parties not field candidates in some areas

Jul 22, 2018 News

AFC Leader, Raphael Trotman

The Alliance For Change (AFC) and the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) are considering a political approach to adopt as the parties seek to find common ground to contest the November 12 Local Government Elections (LGE).
AFC Leader, Raphael Trotman explained that so far the two sides have agreed that they will not campaign or compete against each other as was the case at the 2016 LGE.
“We both said that we are going into it as a Coalition and the talks have not defined how that is going to be done. But what is important for me is that we have stated up front that it will be done. The modalities and the manner in which the parties will campaign together is still to be worked out, but whatever, we do we recognize that we will not be in opposition to each other and neither will we do anything to affect our Coalition Government,” Trotman stated.
The AFC Leader acknowledged that LGE presents some challenges to formulating a shared system, which is quite different to what was pursued at the national elections 2015. The Coalition then agreed on a formula to share Government ministries using the Cummingsburg Accord as a basis for cooperation.
According to Trotman, because of the political challenges, the two sides will have to devise a combination of systems to define how they proceed together.
“It could be that we take different geographic regions or we agree not to campaign in a particular area and support a private citizen or a civic group. It will take different forms,” Trotman explained.
He stated that he does foresee APNU and AFC using their respective party symbols on the ballot. With last week’s announcement of the date for LGE, Trotman stated that the two sides will have to work faster and harder to hammer out an acceptable definition.
Results provided by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) showed that countrywide, the PPP/C gained 123,564 votes under the PR component of the elections compared to 98,670 for APNU+AFC. This is 24,894 votes more than APNU+AFC.
The figures provided above are minus the results for the Good Hope/Pomona NDC for which GECOM had erroneously posted the figures from another NDC on its website. This was not corrected up to press time.
Although the Coalition had won the national elections, the Coalition secured victory over the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), they lost a large percentage of the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDC). The Coalition however, won six of the nine municipalities.
Following the 2016 LGE, APNU and AFC agreed to work together at the local level, but some deep-seated divisions have emerged, especially at the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) where the AFC lost the post of Deputy Mayor under contentious circumstances.
Trotman appeared to downplay these issues, noting that by definition coalition politics is always a bit of a minefield to navigate through.
“I think what is most important is the intent and desire, but in any part of the world, having a coalition of forces or political parties getting anything achieved always takes some degree of effort but what is interesting, on the side of the PNC (People’s National Congress) we hear regularly that they feel that the AFC has too much influence so it is a subjective matter, it is not one that we will ignore or are ignoring,” Trotman noted.
He said that the AFC believes that some things could have been done better; however, they believe that the leadership of the APNU recognizes all the parties could achieve better together and that is what we they are holding out on.
“I think the Coalition has work to do. I believe it has delivered in many respects. Of course, it has not performed as credible as it had hoped in some respects but if one is to take; for example, recent Toshaos elections where we have made tremendous gains in the hinterland and a lot of the work that is being done in the urban sectors; I am quite comfortable that we will do well in the Local Government Elections,” Trotman noted.

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