Let us not fool ourselves, all things remaining equal, and taking into account the outcome of the 2011 general elections, for the PPP/C to lose the executive at the next general elections, at the very least APNU cannot lose a significant number of votes to the AFC, and will have to take more than 15% more votes from the PPP/C. This is due to the constitutional contraptions under which we are governed, which give the executive to the party who gains the highest multiple of votes at a general election. Most people believe that it is the AFC that is best positioned to take these votes, but it also must be realised that this is a formidable challenge for a minority third party in an ethnically divided society. It is therefore imperative that APNU do all it can not only to hold on to the support it has but to present an attractive opposition vision to the population.
The development of a sensible policy is a dialectical relationship between what you believe is good for your constituency (not necessarily what they immediately want) and what is feasible in the short, medium and long terms. In my last column I suggested that an important element of such an APNU policy must be the demand for shared governance. Another would be the construction and propagation of a programme that seeks to institutionalise methodologies to immediately begin to remove
