Not so fast; Norton tells AFC over year-end break up

Jul 16, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – The People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) is looking to stomp the brakes, on the Alliance For Change’s (AFC) plan, to deviate from the Coalition, indicating that the minor group will be subject to the binding agreement which comes to an end in 2025.

Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton

PNCR and Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton, on Tuesday hosted his weekly press conference where he was specifically asked whether a new Cummingsburg Accord could be inked soon with the AFC.

To this end, he noted, “it is premature; as far as I know there is an amended (Cummingsburg) Accord which carries us to the end of this Parliamentary life which is 2025, so when I hear talks about the (Cummingsburg) Accord, I assume it’s the amended (Cummingsburg) Accord, since the (Cummingsburg) Accord as I understand it, is the basis, but there have been changes since then.”

On Monday last, the coalition parties met to iron out the “way forward,” specifically with regards to the political, economic and social-economic “crisis that the PPP has placed Guyana in,” the Opposition Leader reported.

AFC Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan

Last Friday, Chairperson of the AFC, Catherine Hughes announced that the members of the AFC decided at the last National Conference, hosted in June, that when the Cummingsburg Accord comes to an end on December 31 this year, the party will not be renewing the agreement.

Instead, she said the AFC will focus on rebuilding and walking on its own feet.

Norton in response last Saturday, told Kaieteur News he was not officially informed of the AFC’s intent to part ways with the Coalition.

Meanwhile, popular talk show host and coalition supporter, Mark Benschop, in weighing in on the AFC’s announcement, said via a Facebook post last Saturday, that the AFC was only awarded seats in Parliament due to its relationship with the Coalition.

As such, he threatened, “yall ain’t gonna use we and leff we fuh go and bargain with others…dah is not the contract we signed when we voted for the coalition. So, if yall wanna go alone, then yall return all of the seats to the Coalition…or, I will see yall in court.”

AFC Leader Ramjattan yesterday during a media engagement rebuffed the position saying the party will not be giving up its seats in the National Assembly. This, since the Party earned them during the 2020 elections.

He explained that, “quite frankly, the agreement has three to five years tenure ship, or period for the partnership, and we went to our national conference like the PPP Congress or the PNC Congress for a decision on the issue and we opted for the decision for the three year termination.”

As such, the AFC Leader noted, “I do not see anything that will affect our Parliamentary relationship in Opposition, and I am unafraid of the so-called chatterati talking about consequences and so on our nine Parliamentarians, I don’t feel like that would happen at all.”

He reiterated that as indicated, “even though the termination would come at the end of the year, as our conference has now decided, we will still have (a) working relationship with the APNU (A Partnership for National Unity).”

To this end, Ramjattan reasoned, “no we are not going to give up our seats; those seats were earned and the APNU people would know that too, so why should we want to give up our Parliamentary seats when being in Opposition now,

He insisted that it was still “a good platform to carry out Opposition work to scrutinize them and to ensure that they abide by the rule of law”

As such he was adamant, “no we are not going to give up our Parliamentary seats and I do not think that the Leader of the List, Mr. David Granger is going to ever do that.”

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