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AFC unfazed by Azruddin Mohamed’s bid for presidency- Hughes
…says door to coalition with APNU still open
Kaieteur News- The Alliance For Change (AFC) on Friday made it clear that the party is unbothered by the announcement made by businessman Azruddin Mohamed to run for president.
In fact, leader of the political body, attorney Nigel Hughes said he welcomes the addition of another candidate.
AFC Leader, Nigel Hughes
Hughes was at the time responding to a question from Kaieteur News on whether he was concerned about the party’s prospects, in light of Mohamed joining the presidential race. The businessman announced on Monday that he will be contesting this year’s election, set for September 1.
Mohamed, who was sanctioned by the US government back in 2024 over tax evasion and under declaration in Guyana, is also facing other charges locally for allegedly making false declarations to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) on the value of several luxury vehicles purchased by the family.
Nevertheless, Hughes said, “I welcome Mr. Mohamed into this election cycle. It gives Guyanese a wider range of choices and anything that offers the electorate a wider range of choices is good. I think for a long time we have had limited choices to 2006 and Mr. Mohamed clearly has had an impact on the electorate and we welcome him.”
Asked specifically whether he is concerned that Azruddin Mohamed can dampen the AFC’s support base at the next elections, he maintained that he welcomes the addition of a new candidate.
“I welcome the competition and I welcome it for many reasons but particularly because it gives other persons a choice and it forces us to improve our game,” the leader of the AFC noted. He added that over the next three months, the country will have an opportunity to assess which party has the best policies even as he looks forward to a national debate of the candidates.
With regard to his prime ministerial candidate, Hughes said party executives will meet to deliberate on that after which an announcement will be made.
Door still open to coalition
With talks previously stalled with the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) on coalescing ahead of this year’s polls, the AFC explained that the door to a remarriage is still open.
Party chairman, David Patterson told reporters, “Technically until nomination day, that is when technically possibilities are closed. There are also other possibilities of a joinder list and those other things 10 days before elections.”
AFC and APNU had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on January 21, 2025 to identify shared principles, a political platform, goals, and terms for collaboration in the interest of achieving the mutual political goal of successfully contesting this year’s general and regional elections.
Azruddin Mohamed
The MoU stipulated that if no agreement is reached by March 31, 2025, to proceed as a coalition, the agreement will end, and no coalition will be formed. The two sides had however agreed to extend this timeline after failing to reach an agreement by that date.
The AFC later announced on April 17 that it will contest the elections without the APNU, after failing to reach an agreement. At the time, the party expressed a willingness to change its position prior to nomination day.
The AFC, under the stewardship of former leader Khemraj Ramjattan, had decided not to renew the Cummingsburg Accord- the binding agreement with the APNU- in 2023 upon its expiration.
On February 14, 2015, the AFC signed the pact with the APNU, binding the two political parties as a coalition. They later defeated the PPP at the 2015 elections held in May that year. Since then, the coalition has stood together, but not without its internal hiccups.
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