A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has described recent media reports critical of the Partnership’s parliamentary candidate selection as “mistaken, misleading and misplaced.”
In a release yesterday, APNU did not identify any particular report but stated that it is “proud” of the candidates selected to represent it in the National Assembly and insists that the list is balanced by “gender, geography and generation.” The candidates, the Partnership says, represent a wide cross-section of the country and is a bold step forward.
The PNCR – the main component of APNU – has been excoriated for not including on its list of MPs senior party officials such as Chairman Volda Lawrence, former Attorney General Basil Williams and General Secretary Amna Ally. Granger is also not returning to Parliament. The exclusion of these persons and others is seen to be geared to enable Joseph Harmon to become Leader of the Opposition though he is not a senior PNCR figure. Lawrence has maintained complete silence on her exclusion though it has been condemned by PNCR members.
The release yesterday stated that when APNU+AFC launched its general and regional elections campaign committee on February 1, 2019, the five parties comprising the partnership participated and agreed that each party needed to “aggressively” campaign to increase the Coalition‘s 2015 parliamentary seat allocation. APNU Chairman David Granger, it stated, had pointed out that it would take about 7,000 votes to qualify for a single parliamentary seat and he encouraged each minor party to aim for that target.
According to the release, the composition of the list of candidates extracted to represent the APNU in the 12th Parliament represents the parties that actively participated and campaigned during the 2020 General and Regional elections. The Guyana Action Party (GAP) and the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) will be sending candidates to parliament. It is unclear how Granger and APNU determined that the WPA and GAP attracted 7,000 votes each or campaigned more actively than other parties in the alliance.
Another of APNU’s members, the Justice For All Party (JFAP) complained on Tuesday of being ignored in the selection of MPs.
Executive member of JFAP, Savitree Sharma told Stabroek News that the party has been completely sidelined.
“We feel that we have been used…and at this point we can see no reason for sticking with them but we will consider our options before acting,” she said.
According to Sharma the last meeting of APNU that they are aware of occurred on August 5 but they were not invited.
“We made a statement calling for the party to concede and end the impasse which lasted for five months…that statement appears to have helped them to decide to keep us out,” she posited, adding that the party had already been marginalized and ignored.
“If they did not coalesce they would not have been in office. They needed us and the other small parties for the crossover vote but as soon as they won we became window dressing. We were not even invited to the inauguration. At no time at were smaller parties involved in decision making. We were shut out,” Sharma said.
She further explained that though there was an agreement that each of the smaller parties would have one seat the PNCR appears to be hogging as many APNU seats as they can.
It had been reported that Granger was seeking to have each party prove a certain volume of membership before they could be allowed to occupy a seat but Sharma noted that they were never asked to provide any information.
“At no time at all were we asked anything. In 2011 we had the votes. Mr (CN) Sharma had the following. He has since gotten sick and is not as active but the reality is when he said he doesn’t want cardboard parties it’s because they want all the seats for the PNCR. They don’t need or want us anymore,” she concluded.
APNU yesterday said that it views as “false and regrettable” for anyone to state that small parties within the APNU are being “used, abused and discarded.” It assured that all parties that comprise the APNU are valued members of the partnership. “We respect them and urge them to continue to work to achieve our goal of a more cohesive society.”
The Partnership referred to its Statement of Principles, to which it says all Partners ascribe, which affirms that a positive transformation of Guyana can only be achieved by an inclusive Electoral Coalition built around the political parties, and other stakeholders. It also states that the Coalition must be organized and committed to develop Guyana into a “united, stable and prosperous nation, where the well-being of each citizen is assured, irrespective of differences in race, religion, region of residence, social rank or political persuasion.”
APNU declared that it has not and will not deviate from its founding principles.
With regard to accusations of discrimination or preferential treatment meted out to any Partner during the extraction process, APNU fervently denied such occurrences, adding, “Those selected to represent the Coalition were required to meet the nomination criteria that included citizenship (proof of nationality), competence, community service, constituency representation, ethnic balance, gender balance, generational balance, geographical balance, occupational balance, and political party membership.”
APNU also said that it remains committed to bringing an end to winner-takes-all politics and one-party rule in Guyana.
“We are convinced that in order to achieve these goals we must have a big benab where all are welcome”, it said.
APNU’s public image has been battered by the view that it had been attempting to have Granger illegally sworn in as President on the basis of rigged elections. The PPP/C was finally declared the winner of the elections on August 2nd.
