ANUG to elect presidential, PM candidates by month end

-youth forum planned

Kian Jabour
Kian Jabour

The newly-launched A New and United Guyana (ANUG) party has started its membership drive and is mobilising for a general meeting to be convened at February month end, when its presidential and prime ministerial candidates will be elected, according to co-founder and steering committee member Dr Henry Jeffrey. 

In the meantime, the party’s youth membership is also mobilising a support base and ANUG will be hosting its first youth forum on Sunday at the Banquet Hall, Parc Rayne (Rahaman’s Park), Houston.

The forum, according to ANUG co-founder Kian Jabour, is to give young people the chance to discuss the future of the country and to help shape the party’s manifesto in terms of youth participation.

Since the party’s launch, Jeffrey told Stabroek News, the feedback from the wider society has been encouraging and the steering committee of the party is currently executing some of its plans, including the setting up the party’s headquarters. It is expected that the party’s headquarters, to be located in Cowan Street, Kingston, will be completed by this weekend.

Once the presidential candidate and the prime ministerial candidates are named and the officers of the party are elected in keeping with its constitution, which has been circulated and is to be adopted, Jeffrey said, its campaign will intensify across the country.

Among areas initially targeted for outreach are Berbice, the Essequibo Coast, Linden and Lethem. The logistics for other areas are also being worked out, he said.

According to its constitution, the party’s 14 aims and objectives include to establish a democratic, inclusive system of governance, to eliminate discrimination based on any distinction, to establish legal and administrative mechanisms to ensure transparency and good governance and an end to corruption, and to provide equal economic opportunities countrywide for equitable development.

Also high in the aims and objectives are to fully eliminate discrimination against women, end all forms of violence against them, and to legislate for a minimum number of women to be named on each list of candidates and to be elected to the National Assembly,         

The party also aims to provide child care facilities for all children and educational opportunities at all levels, including free tertiary education by the state.

The aims provide for the use of economic resources, including petroleum, to establish a Human Rights Commission in keeping with constitutional provisions and to protect the environment.