The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) has officially announced the resignation from the party of its chair Tabitha Sarabo-Halley.
A release from the party noted they had received the resignation of Sarabo-Halley adding that they regret her departure.
“She served the WPA in the highest councils of government and we see her as an asset to the new generation of national leaders going forward. We are proud that we took the bold step in promoting her to high office,” they explained.
The former minister will return to parliament after she was selected by former President David Granger to occupy on of the 31 seats held by the opposition.
While, Granger as leader of the party lists is the sole person who can submit a list of parliamentarians to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) several members of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), including the WPA, have complained that he failed to consult with them and publicly stated that they will be withdrawing from the coalition.
According to the WPA, the practice within coalitions is that the autonomous parties name the representatives.
They point out that within the larger APNU+AFC Coalition, the AFC has been able to name its own representative but Granger has “stoutly refused to replicate it within the APNU.”
“APNU is not a political party with a single leader; it is a coalition of independent and autonomous parties with their own leaderships and their separate ideological positions. Thus, each party knows best the kind of representation it requires. No party should determine that for the other,” they stressed.
The party reiterated that their decision to withdraw from the coalition was a difficult decision that was taken after much deliberation.
“We wish to assure the public, especially supporters of the Coalition, that it is a principled decision that was not born of expediency,” they note.
The party explained that they had shortlisted four of its candidates with the expectation that it would be allotted two seats.
“We agreed that one seat would be rotated between Brother Ali Majeed and Sister Tabitha Sarabo with Brother Majeed serving for the first half of term while the other seat would be rotated between Brothers Kidackie Amsterdam and Deon Abrams. WPA felt that these choices represent a mix of ethnic, gender and generational diversity. We also felt that the rotation device would allow more members to gain parliamentary experience. These decisions were unanimously agreed to,” they said.
