Minister Moses Nagamootoo
After much back and forth between the two coalition partners, the Alliance For Change (AFC) will this weekend discuss whether or not it will be contesting the upcoming Local Government Elections (LGE) alone or together with the majority coalition party, the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).
According to the AFC, the party will be hosting its third quarterly National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting for 2018 this Saturday at the Sophia Exhibition Centre, in Greater Georgetown.
“This NEC will focus exclusively on the party’s position, plans and preparations for the upcoming Local Government Elections…,” the AFC said in a statement on Tuesday.
The party’s representatives from all 10 administrative regions and from the Diaspora are scheduled to attend the one-day meeting.
Having felt it was disadvantaged in the 2016 Local Government polls with regards to the allocation of candidates, the AFC had been mulling whether it should contest the LGEs alone this time round. However, the party subsequently initiated discussions with its coalition partner to discuss the way forward.
Last month at a press conference, the AFC said the party has proposed nine major points to be negotiated; the upcoming Local Government Elections being the first.
However, this publication was reliably informed that the AFC is demanding 60 per cent of the total seats secured after the Local Government Elections which is expected in November of this year. This demand comes after AFC Councillors in the Georgetown municipality has been sidelined by the APNU’s Councillors on a number of issues inclusive of the controversial parking meter project.
The 2015 Cummingsburg Accord only catered for arrangements between the two parties regarding the General and Regional Elections. To this end, the AFC proposed as part of the nine points up for negotiation that an agreement on LGE be crafted.
The minority coalition partner detailed some of its positions for negotiation in the LGE Accord. The AFC’s NEC, after a May 1 meeting, had allowed additional time for the two coalition partners to have a definitive written agreement in the form of a Local Government Elections Accord.
LGEs are scheduled for mid-November and Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan recently told this newspaper that the exact date will be announced in two weeks’ time.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, Justice (ret’d) James Patterson assured that the entity has done its ground work and is now awaiting the announcement of the date to be fully prepared for the Local Government polls.
