Questionable elections inside the AFC

Jun 05, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

My Monday column highlighted what took place on Saturday afternoon at the head office of the AFC. It was the closing day for nomination. One of the top leaders in the AFC, Imran Khan, discovered that he and his wife did not make it as delegates to the upcoming conference. Khan’s protest was unusual. For fear of libel, I did not describe Khan’s deportment.

Freddie Kissoon

Another section of the press reported how Khan behaved. I am not going to repeat that description here; out of fear of libel again. But in another section of the press, one of the leaders of the AFC, Ms. Beverley Alert, offered her views on Khan’s antics. By Monday, both Khan and his wife had acquired delegate status. That is one day after his protestations.
This is a country of crass, deplorable political culture, so the nation would never be given an explanation as to how two persons can be made to vote at a party’s congress when after closing time, they were not nominated to be delegates.
If the AFC was a tiny, eccentric party that is more obscure than elephants in Guyana, no one would even for a fleeting moment bother to notice what took place with Khan and his wife. But the AFC is half of the government in a Coalition Administration and a general election is coming up. A question that is logical to ask is if inside a ruling party they can proceed with faulty elections, then why wouldn’t they do it at the national level?
In several columns, I have voiced my opinion about the upcoming election being rigged. It is my opinion to own, just as those who believe my opinion is nonsense. But I honestly believe there are indications, since 2017 with the non-compliance with the Carter-Price formula for selecting a GECOM chairman, that the election arrangement may not be free and fair. I guess I can be proven wrong, but until then I have a right to express my feelings just as members of the governmental leadership do.
Let’s get back to the AFC. I was told that each member of the AFC, to become a delegate, has to be nominated by the section of Guyana to which he/she/they belong(s). For example, Region Three has to name its people. Those selected would be Region Three delegates. And the pattern is repeated for the other parts of Guyana. Khan and his wife belong to the Georgetown branch of the AFC, headed by Sherod Duncan. It would appear that there were no nominations from Georgetown for Khan and his wife. On discovering this, Khan was enraged on Saturday afternoon.
But in politics, there are usually monumental upsets. That is the nature of politics. In a straight fight for the leadership of the UNC in Trinidad, the famous case of Basdeo Panday losing to Kamla Persad-Bissessar has gone down in the history books of that country. Trump won more delegates than top names in the Republican Party and he clinched the presidential slot.
My understanding is that no one from Georgetown put forward the names of Khan and his wife. Khan is too big in the AFC leadership to have lost out, but he did, and that is the way politics is. But more importantly, this is the way internal party democracy should work, and it has never been so in the PPP and PNC.
On Monday evening, a strange thing happened at the AFC head office, and this is where the AFC will be hard-pressed to maintain its raison d’être. On its own without the PNC, the AFC couldn’t win just one NDC in last year’s local government poll. Without the PNC, the AFC will not win even one parliamentary seat in the next general election. It is this columnist’s opinion that the AFC is a more unprincipled, unsound, unhinged, political entity than the PPP and PNC.
So what did the AFC do on Monday evening? The non-functioning women arm of the AFC, named Women For Change, presided over a hastily convened meeting and, bingo – Imran Khan’s wife is now a delegate to the upcoming AFC congress later this month. In the meantime, Khan himself was granted delegate status. What happened to the closure of nomination at 6p.m., Saturday, June 1?
In my Monday column, I advised readers that Moses Nagamootoo is an old fox who knows the game of what I would call, “delegate-shaping” after seeing “delegate-shaping” for over forty years in the PPP. Khan and his wife work in the Office of the Prime Minister and both are supporters of Nagamootoo over Ramjattan in their contest for the PM slot. Ramjattan has lost round four.

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