The election is not about who will bring in the most votes but who will bring in the most additional votes

Dear Editor,

In consideration of whether the APNU-AFC coalition should be led by either an APNU or AFC presidential candidate going into the elections, it is necessary to focus on the objective at hand, ie, that of bringing people who have been hardened against voting for APNU, under any circumstances, over from the PPP. The obvious solution would be one led by the APNU presidential candidate, based on the immediate strengths of the voting constituencies of the two parties.

However, given the risk involved, I consider that what the hardcore PPP supporters who want to break away and have confidence in their new government will need is upfront security of representation. That, I submit, can be unequivocally achieved by APNU and its supporters recognizing the objective; not pandering to proportional representation in the initial distribution of power in terms of who gets the presidency first; and deferring to being led into power by an AFC presidential candidate, very likely resulting in a landslide at the booth.

Based on earlier discussions, an important point is noteworthy here. This is that the issue at hand here is not which party brings in the most votes this election, but which party brings in the most additional votes this election, more particularly, those of the traditional supporters of the PPP. The other major point to note is that the APNU, by allowing the AFC candidate to lead the coalition into the elections, will not forfeit any political power to the AFC. The central executive of the APNU will still retain control of its affairs, and the traditional APNU supporters will still have recourse to the APNU on political matters.

Issues of who gets which ministerial posts are immediately very minor, and are easily negotiated. In opting for this route, the APNU will make a tremendous strategic dent in the PPP, while securing the peoples’ ultimate objective of winning the election.

I urge my fellow Guyanese, particularly the traditional APNU supporters, to consider this proposal, discuss it and clarify all their concerns with it. Unless there is something that is radically worse than losing the elections, I urge there be agreement upon it, and that this consensus filter back up to the leaders of both the APNU and AFC as soon as possible.

We can then put the PPP behind us and get on with forging our development and remedying our constitutional and other issues.

Yours faithfully,
Craig Sylvester