The PNCR and AFC need to go back to the negotiation table immediately

Apr 21, 2025 Letters

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Dear Editor,

There was an announcement on Thursday that the AFC and the PNC/R-APNU will be contesting the 2025 elections separately. This is outright unacceptable, and the PNC/R-APNU and AFC need to go back to the negotiation table immediately! The focus of these negotiations should have three objectives: 1) The overall objective should be to put a team together to win the upcoming elections to get into government and 2) The more specific objectives should focus on ways of working as a Coalition government. This includes the discussions on 70-30% or 60-40%. Who will be the Representative of the List of candidates, etc. Practically speaking, the second objective is heavily dependent on the first objective being realized.

I have been soliciting various views on these matters and here is my analysis of an possible Coalition team, Aubrey Norton as President; Nigel Hughes as Prime Minister, First Vice President and Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General with responsibility for constitutional reform or Nigel Hughes as Prime Minister, First Vice President and Minister of Home Affairs with responsibility for constitutional reform; Dr. Terrence Campbell as the Second Vice President and Senior Minister of Natural Resources and Coalition

Manager (Meaning that Dr. Campbell will have the responsibility to ensure that the Coalition is managed, sustained and is functional as a government); Ganesh Mahipaul, Minister of Governance and Parliamentary Affairs; and Amanza Walton-Desir as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Now to Mr. Aubrey Norton and Mr. Nigel Hughes on the first objective above, ‘putting a team together to win the upcoming elections to get into government’. Do you see all those women who go out to work as security guards all over Guyana and have to leave work at 11:00 p.m. and sometimes walk home or sometimes take a bus and then walk to where they live? Do you think that all of them like being security guards? The answer is no. But what they will tell you is that while they do not like to work as security guards, they are doing it to take care of their children and families. Many of them do not have the privilege of saying that they do not want to work as security guards or want to walk home at 11:00 o’ clock in thenights, they have to do it for their families.

Where am I going with this? Aubrey Norton and Nigel Hughes are only leaders because they have followers and while many people in their core base may say let the PNC/R contest the elections and let the AFC contest separately, my question is, do they want to win the 2025 Elections? It would be difficult for the PNC/R to win the upcoming elections without the AFC and an AFC win is unlikely. The PNC/R could have possibly won if AFC was not contesting, but the AFC is not going anywhere, so the PNC/R-APNU and AFC coalition is the arrangement that can win. Families are already discussing that some of them will vote for the AFC because they support Nigel Hughes and the AFC, and some family members are saying that they will vote for the PNC/R because they want to give them a chance to win.

The AFC will take votes from the PNC/R, so the results may likely be a minority PPP/C government and a majority Opposition with the PNC/R-APNU and AFC. If this happens, it does not achieve the overall objective of the coalition which should be to win the upcoming elections, therefore the second objective of who gets what position, who becomes parliamentarians, etc. would not be relevant anymore. Which brings me to the third objective for the negotiations in establishing the Coalition government; this is to ensure good governance, a more inclusive society, equitable distribution of resources and a better quality of life for all Guyanese.

As a majority Opposition the PNC/R-APNU and AFC may be able to achieve some aspects of good governance, but as it relates to a more inclusive society, equitable distribution of resources and a better quality of life for all Guyanese, they would need the authority of the Executive to do that. The supporters of the PNC/R-APNU and AFC and many Guyanese want to enjoy all of these; good governance, a more inclusive society, equitable distribution of resources and a better quality of life for all, and these can only be achieved if the Coalition becomes the Executive branch of government. For the past five years, The PNC/R, APNU, AFC and WPA have been telling the people of Guyana that when they get into government that they will do this and do that, so the people have waited for five years and now the

PNC/R and AFC come to tell them that the only highly possible pathway to get into government which is by a Coalition, is not going to happen anymore. So, if they do not win the elections how are they going to do this and that for their supporters and the people of Guyana? Listen PNC/R and AFC, even if you have to form the coalition and spend the next five years with less portfolios but Guyana has better governance, a more inclusive society, resources are distributed more equitably and all Guyanese have a chance at a better quality of life, the Coalition would have been worth it.

Just like the women who do not want to work as security guards, particularly when they have to walk home at 11:00 o’clock in the nights but they have to do it for their children and family, similarly, the PNC/R and AFC need to contest the upcoming elections as a Coalition for your supporters, your followers and those Guyanese who are depending on you to use the structure of political parties that you have to put the best leadership team and arrangement together to contest the upcoming elections because 350,000 people cannot all register with GECOM to contest the elections, they need to do this through your political parties.

Having said that, Mr. Aubrey Norton and Mr. Nigel Hughes should tell the people of this country that the PNC/R -APNU and AFC will be contesting the 2025 Elections as a Coalition by 2:00 p.m. on Friday April 25, 2025. People are waiting!!!!

Sincerely,

Citizen Audreyanna Thomas

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• Coalition team, Minister of Home Affairs, Nigel Hughes, PNC/R-APNU, Prime Minister

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