Frustration boiling over in opposition’s camp

Jun 12, 2025 News

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…as PNCR, AFC fail to form coalition, haggle over division of spoils

Kaieteur News – Two top youth leaders of both the PNCR and the Alliance For Change have expressed frustration over the parties’ inability to form a coalition ahead of the September 1, 2025 elections.

Members of Parliament, Amanza Walton-Desir of the PNCR and her colleague, Juretha Fernandes, of the AFC, both issued statements on Wednesday, bemoaning the lack of progress in advancing the matter.  Back in April, the AFC had announced that it would be contesting the upcoming General Elections without the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). 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. 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 timeline.

However, on April 17, 2025, Chairman of the AFC, David Patterson, during a party press conference, revealed that despite the best efforts of the two negotiating teams, a mutually agreed position could not be met. “Regrettably, we have, despite the best efforts of our negotiation team, been unable to arrive at a mutually beneficial arrangement with APNU. We’ve communicated our decision, regrettably so to APNU, and we have also indicated to them that we will proceed with our campaign as the Alliance For Change since time is of the essence,” the Member of Parliament (MP) explained. Patterson added that the AFC is willing to cooperate with the APNU and “other individuals” in areas outside the elections. According to him, the door is open to changes to this position prior to nomination day.

Meanwhile, Leader of the AFC and the party’s Presidential Candidate, Nigel Hughes, made it clear that the AFC never objected to Opposition and Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Aubrey Norton, as the Coalition’s presidential candidate. Instead, he believes that a scientific process should make such a determination. However, both the AFC and PNCR had held out hope that some agreement would have been brokered before Nomination Day on July 14, but not much has been accomplished since then.

Enough is enough

Adding her voice to the growing frustrations among progressives of the two parties, Walton-Desir said that like the majority of “our supporters, I am deeply frustrated and fed up with the state of the negotiations between our coalition partners. While I might not have been in the room, since January, 2025, I have been urging, pleading with the parties involved to come together and create something that our supporters and the people of Guyana could be proud of and enthusiastically support; six months later, we are no closer to an agreement and seem more divided than when we started.” The young MP, whose name has been thrown into the mix as a possible presidential candidate, said: “We are failing the people who look to us for leadership, because we are feeding them a diet of division and public bickering that is draining their hope and trust. We are failing the people who believe in us, all the while enabling a corrupt and incompetent government that is running unchecked. The future will not forgive us, history will not absolve us.  It is time we all wake up and realize that leadership means actually putting people first.  Enough is enough now!”

Consensus candidate

For her part, Fernandes centred her statement on the call for a consensus candidate to lead the coalition at the polls. She said she has read several articles advocating for a consensus candidate, often from individuals who have not been actively involved in politics over the years. Fernandes said these pieces attempt to frame such a candidate as necessary for a coalition victory.

“The concept of a consensus candidate isn’t new to us. This idea formed the basis for heavy discussions a year ago in my party, and it was wholly dismissed by those considered senior leaders within the party.”

Fernandes said it was made abundantly clear by them that to be considered presidential candidate material, one must be the leader of a political party. “So you can only imagine my surprise when reading about consensus candidates who do not hold the leadership of a political party, promoted by the very people who strongly dismissed that idea just a year ago. If this isn’t an example of only wanting something when it suits your purpose, I don’t know what is.”

The AFC MP said that throughout her political career, she had witnessed parties elevate people with no political experience to leadership positions, only to suffer the consequences of their inexperience and, worse, their betrayal due to a lack of loyalty to the movement.

“Having worked my way up the political ladder from the local government level, I can attest that there is immense value in understanding the system you aim to lead. Governance is no walk in the park. It demands not only knowledge of how the system functions but also a deep commitment to crafting policies that benefit the people, not oneself. The very notion of a consensus candidate at this stage must be questioned. I urge everyone to scrutinise the reasoning behind it and apply critical thinking.”

Sidelined

Fernandes also said that often, grassroots political leaders are sidelined and labelled as “not electable” by those who wish to dismiss them in favour of individuals perceived as more “popular.” And when these individuals fail to transform into genuine grassroots leaders, it is the people who suffer. “This moment calls for leadership that is for the people, leadership that understands the plight of the people. And dare I say, this moment is not to be hijacked by any group that perceives itself to be better than the political leaders who have stayed the course,” Fernandes said. “We live in a country where one segment of society reaps the vast benefits of our nation’s resources, while the majority, the ordinary Guyanese, barely receive enough to survive. In this reality, we must ask ourselves some hard questions. Chief among them: Are we willing to gamble the future of ordinary Guyanese on an unknown?  If your answer, like mine, is no, then we should not entertain this dangerous fantasy of a consensus candidate, an idea coming from the very people who dismissed it just one year ago. The stakes are too high.”

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• AFC, Amanza Walton-Desir, Guyana coalition, Juretha Fernandes, PNCR

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