…as Ramjattan fights to be selected as Granger’s running mate for 2020 polls
The leaders of the A Partnership for National Unit (APNU) and Alliance For Change (AFC) met on Thursday and have agreed to resume dialogue one week after talks broke down over the selection of AFC’s Khemraj Ramjattan as the Coalition’s Prime Ministerial candidate for March 2020 General and Regional Elections.
Leader of the APNU, President David Granger and Leader of the AFC, accompanied by Chairman of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Volda Lawrence and AFC General Secretary, David Patterson, met for close to an hour to sort out contentious issues and decide on the way forward in relation to arriving at a new accord which would guide the Coalition partners for the upcoming polls and the period after.
Following the meeting at State House, Ramjattan left without offering any comment to the media as to how the talks are progressing and more particularly his selection as Granger’s running mate for the upcoming polls.
A source close to the party told this publication that Ramjattan is currently lobbying allies within both camps to be given the nod to run alongside Granger.
In a brief comment to the media, Lawrence said that “the meeting was very good.” She related: “we had some bumps in the road and so we came to the two leaders, and we have been able to have had a very good meeting with them and they’ve sent us back to do the task that they’ve given to us.”
On his part, when asked about the level of progress made at the meeting, AFC’s Patterson reported that there was indeed some positive movement, but refused to give specific details in relation to the selection of Ramjattan as Granger’s running mate for the elections.
“Both sides have some work to do and we have agreed that we will do the work as soon as possible so we have given ourselves some time-frames and we are both committed to work to those time-frames so the outtake of the meeting is progress,” Patterson said.
The AFC had hinted last week that it could part ways with its coalition partner; APNU, should its (AFC) choice of the prime ministerial candidate be rejected for the upcoming 2020 polls.
Both parties, which form the current administration, were in talks over the revision of the Cummingsburg Accord, so that they can contest the March 2020 elections again as a coalition. The Accord, which binds the two parties, states that the presidential candidate post is to be filled by the APNU while the coalition’s PM candidate would be from the AFC.
While the AFC would have moved to select their leader Khemraj Ramjattan for the post during a recent party congress, the APNU has been reticent, showing no signs of support for this decision.
The minority coalition partner had also informed the APNU that until this stalemate is resolved, no other decision can be made on the Accord.
The APNU has thrown its support behind caretaker President David Granger to return as its Presidential Candidate for a second term.
Asked whether they would be willing to make a switch, Vice-Chair of the AFC, Cathy Hughes had affirmed, “We’ve had a set process that chose a candidate. On what basis would we begin to reexamine our process that we hold important to the operations of the AFC? We don’t have a basis to change it. Why would we?”
