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WPA favours grand coalition of opposition parties to fight PPP
—appears uninterested in rejoining APNU
Kaieteur News- The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) has made it clear that they are not engaged in any talks to rejoin A Partnership for Nation Unity (APNU), but they will support a grand coalition of opposition parties to fight the ruling PPP/Civic at next year’s general and regional elections.
This disclosure was made by the Co Leader of the party Dr. David Hinds on Monday during their weekly press conference. Dr. Hinds was asked to clarify if there were talks on rejoining the coalition and to also explain the difference between a coalition and a grand coalition. He told reporters that, “WPA is in no talks to rejoin APNU. WPA has not signaled that it will rejoin APNU. WPA is interested in a grand coalition to contest the next elections. We are in no talks to rejoin APNU. We have not said we will rejoin APNU.”
Co Leader of the WPA, Dr. David Hinds.
Dr. Hinds explained that under the APNU+AFC Government the WPA was subsumed, and decisions were made for the party by the leader of the coalition, who were also the leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR). He clarified that this was the reason they left the coalition, because they did not have an independent identity and this applied to parliamentary representation as well. “At the moment we do not belong to the APNU, and our engagement with the other parties would be as WPA, and not a party that is subsumed under the APNU. We are not a member of the APNU, we are not in talks with the PNC or anybody towards rejoining the APNU,” he said.
Currently the party is in constant contact with the leadership of both the PNC and the Alliance for Change (AFC), in terms of forming an opposition coalition, with each party acting in its own name and not as part of the APNU. “PNC uses PNC/APNU and that is for the PNC to explain, but we intend to engage our partners as WPA,” he stated.
Dr. Hinds explained that with the APNU it was a partnership of parties, whereby it was a number of parties and those parties under the rubric of APNU+AFC, so APNU+AFC was the grand coalition. APNU was a partnership of parties that came together under an agreement and they contested the elections as APNU not as PNC, not as GAP, not as WPA, etc. “That was a partnership which is different from a grand coalition that included APNU and AFC. Going as an independent party in a grand coalition you go with your own identity. That is the first thing the AFC went into the elections as AFC they weren’t subsumed under the partnership and we would prefer to go into the election as part of a coalition as WPA so that our identity is not smothered,” he explained.
Furthermore, within a grand coalition, Hinds said “everybody should have an equal say in arriving at decisions, and it is not about whether you represent more people or not; it is whether your ideas on a particular issue are correct. You can’t make decisions on policies based on the number of people you represent. Look at the PPP, they represent half of the electorate, they represent half of the electorate and look what they are doing, look at what they are doing with the cash grant, and other things. So, decision making cannot be based on how many people you represent,” Dr. Hinds said.
(WPA favours grand coalition of opposition parties to fight PPP )
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