As the battle for the position of Opposition Leader gathers momentum, a motion of no confidence by APNU MPs against Joseph Harmon could be in the works to clear a pathway for PNCR Head Aubrey Norton.
Acrimony from the increasingly bitter dispute has also now engulfed the Alliance for Change (AFC) which together with A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) constitute the opposition APNU+AFC coalition in Parliament.
Norton is set for a key meeting with Opposition Leader Harmon this week which will decide the way forward. With Norton winning the December contest for PNCR leader, the party is insisting he should become Opposition Leader and Harmon should step aside. Harmon and APNU – whose major component is the PNCR – have however balked at this.
Norton on Saturday met with AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan who has taken a battering from his party’s executives over statements made to the press on Friday and which he yesterday said misrepresented his position. His statements on Friday appeared to support Harmon remaining in the post.
And anticipating a possible move for a No Confidence Motion against Harmon, the PNCR is currently “strategizing in a way that would give everyone a win-win position and not further hurt an already fractured party…putting its dirty linen in public”, a source said.
Ramjattan confirmed the meeting on Saturday while Norton told Stabroek News when contacted, “I don’t know about any meeting or what you are talking about.”
“It was an introductory meeting. We met yesterday because he is Leader of the PNCR and I am Leader of the AFC,” Ramjattan confirmed when contacted by this newspaper.
Ramjattan did not go into details of the meeting but stressed that he wants it made public that he came in for a flaying from his party comrades over the statements made when all he was doing was giving a legal opinion and not the position of either himself or party.
“I am not supporting Harmon. I gave a legal opinion on what follows. A number of my party leaders contacted me and it is why I had to explain to them that it was a legal opinion,” he said.
“I spoke to Stabroek News and I spoke to Demerara Waves. Yet one has a headline that I rubbished this and that and support Harmon. I did not say that,” he added.
Last Friday, the PNCR threw down the gauntlet to its partners in APNU+AFC, insisting that its new Head, Norton should become the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament but there was immediate resistance to this call which threatens an embarrassing public showdown that can also drag in former President and former PNCR Leader David Granger.
As had been foretold by political observers, Norton’s easy win of the PNCR’s leadership at the party’s congress immediately put Harmon’s position in danger as the latter has no base and was shepherded into the post by Granger, who, after losing the 2020 general elections banished a large number of senior PNCR officials from the Parliamentary line-up. Norton is not a Member of Parliament and it would be up to Granger as Representative of the List to make decisions on changes to the complement of MPs. Ramjattan is the Deputy Representative of the List.
While Granger did not contest for leadership of the PNCR last month, Harmon did and was handily beaten by Norton. The view has been expressed in political circles that since APNU is essentially the PNCR its Head should now become the Leader of the Opposition and that Granger should step aside as the List Representative. Observers note however that Granger had recognised the importance of becoming the List Representative to limit the chance of any challenge to Harmon’s role as Leader of the Opposition.
Granger has not responded to emails from this newspaper on the leadership issue or answered any of the many telephone calls to his Pearl, East Bank Demerara home.
However, his party colleagues say that he is not a man to share his plan of action with even close party comrades and only if he needed a legal opinion he would “summon” trusted attorneys in the PNCR.
“No one knows Mr. Granger’s plan of action except Mr. Granger and possibly an emissary who relays that plan when it is made,” a source said. He would never meet at Congress Place either even when he was Leader.
Breath
“What I can tell you though is to not hold your breath waiting for him to give up the position (Representative of the List). He has nothing to lose at this point…,” the source added.
Ramjattan had told this newspaper on Friday that he has confidence in Harmon’s leadership and he should serve his full five-year Constitutional post but yesterday he said he was clarifying what he meant as it was just a legal opinion.
“When you have legislative posts, you follow processes in accordance with the law. So not because the PNC Leader feels he should be Opposition Leader, Joe must leave. Joe has been appointed for five years and until such time he resigns or there is a No Confidence Motion against him by the APNU+AFC party block, he ought to serve. You can’t say, ‘this is what the party wants; haul yuh ass’ and that is it,” Ramjattan had said on Friday.
Harmon’s office had issued a statement on Friday saying that the party must follow due process. “The APNU Partnership has an established structure and if the executive of a party in the partnership has a position and they wish to express that position; they should follow the established procedure,” the statement from the Office of The Leader of the Opposition said.
“The Office of the Leader of the Opposition is a constitutional office and is consequently governed by the constitution,” it added.
Sources told Stabroek News that the AFC parliamentary representatives and executives were quick to chide Ramjattan over the comments on Friday, and many referenced the treatment both the party and Ramjattan faced from Harmon and Granger.
One member told this newspaper that it “seems Khemraj [‘s] memory is short…It was the very Harmon who under Granger belittled the AFC. We faced so much resistance and now Khemraj just offers a blanket statement as if he consulted with the AFC. Well, no! The AFC will be guided by its party decisions. There is democracy over here,” the executive said.
Another member blazed Ramjattan as he posited that Harmon has never held Ramjattan in high esteem while another executive said it will come down to the AFC’s constituents guiding its parliamentary representatives.
“We have our NEC (National Executive Council meeting) in March and are hoping that issue is worked out before then. If not, we will have to go to the party before to ask for their guidance should a (no confidence motion) be tabled against Harmon. As far as most of us see it now, we thought he (Harmon) would have done the honourable thing and resign. I cannot, however, tell you here and now if all nine of the AFC parliamentarians will support Aubrey if one of his PNC supporters is to table that motion. We wait and see,” the executive said.
One party source said that Saturday’s meeting saw issues such as the Vice Chairmanship of Region 4 and nominees for the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) being discussed. The AFC has expressed disappointment at having its candidate ignored for the post of Region 4 Vice Chairman and its PPC nominee shunned for that of a PNCR nominee.
It is unclear what trade-offs between Norton’s PNCR and the AFC could be in the works but one executive said it depends on “what Mr. Norton brings to the table”.
A popular AFC executive opined it might be best that the entire AFC abstain from voting should there be a motion of no confidence by opposition MPs against Harmon and “just leave the PNC to thrash it out.”
“I am not in favour, at this time of …AFC support to bring Norton to the House. Let that party (PNCR/APNU) deal with that issue. It is 22 of them and only 16 persons are needed (to pass the motion of no confidence). We should take a position of non-interference,” the AFC Executive said.
The stance of letting the PNCR decide on the tabling and voting on a no confidence motion against the Opposition Leader was echoed by former APNU member, the Working People’s Alliance.
“I view that as an internal PNC matter. The APNU work was allocated to the bigger parties and the parties chose who fill those positions. There was never an election on who should be leader, general secretary, chairman…the large party got the big spoils and they decided who occupied those positions. When sources within APNU preferred (Moses) Nagamootoo as the PM Candidate, the AFC insisted the candidate has to be chosen by that party. WPA walked away from the coalition because they did not give us that right and voice to choose,” WPA executive David Hinds said yesterday.
“So now that this has come up, why bring in the smaller parties? That is a matter for them to deal with. Representative of the List stipulations were part of the Cummingsburg Accord. In 2020, in order to get some concessions, the AFC gave that up and the PNCR chose Granger. It was the PNCR that chose Granger…The PNC faction wanted that person to be their person and the AFC sacrificed (Harold) Lutchman (as List Representative) to keep their complement of seats in exchange for giving to the PNCR (the List Representative). Granger was the leader, the Representative of the list…all because he is from the large party and so the large party gets to choose those positions. So let the party sort it out now. It has nothing to do with APNU. There was never an election for APNU portfolios; these things were given or taken by the large party,” he added.
