‘Decision to pull out was unanimous’

…says President of AFC-Canada Chapter

Members of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Canadian Chapter have pulled out from the AFC party, as the fallout over the unilateral appointment of Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) Chairman deepens.
In a letter to the AFC, Secretary of AFC-Canada, Laurence Williams, expressed grave concerns about James’ appointment.
Williams said his party’s group in Canada agreed that the AFC should publicly call for the appointment to be rescinded and for one of the 18 persons nominated to be appointed.

He also stated in that missive that AFC-Canada will no longer be associated with the AFC. However, it said it would “continue to support the Guyanese people’s quest and struggle for national unity, democracy, transparency, accountability and peace and progress”.
However, on Tuesday, AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan and AFC General Secretary Marlon Williams expressed different opinions on the matter. While criticising the move, Ramjattan told sections of the media on Tuesday that the party will not backpedal on the decision based on the opinion of one support group.
But in a new twist, General Secretary Marlon Williams, claimed that the letter was “fake” and does not represent the position of AFC-Canada. Marlon also went on to state that several media entities had contacted him around midnight on Tuesday to clarify whether the statement was true and whether the AFC will support such a call. He again reminded this newspaper that the letter is fake.
“There is a process by which we do things and every statement has a channel that it passes through. All statements are sent to the party and approved by our Vice Chairperson Catherine Hughes and disseminated to the media by Imran Khan,” the party’s General Secretary said.
However, AFC-Canada Secretary Williams told Guyana Times International on Tuesday that the missive is not fake, and the content of the letter was decided on following a meeting with members. He went on to state that he was in communication with Ramjattan via email minutes before the statement was issued.
“Our meeting last Friday evening was well attended, with full capacity with the exception of few. We had a unanimous decision which we had to go public. We also informed the Leader (Raphael Trotman) and the Chairman (Ramjattan) of the AFC before we went to the press,” he explained.
This publication also made contact with President of the AFC-Canada Tameshwar Lilmohan who also debunked claims made by the party’s General Secretary and said there is no such protocol where a support group like AFC-Canada where the group cannot freely express its own opinion.
He said the political Diaspora group has been in existence for over 10 years and has provided both financial and intellectual support to the AFC. He went as far as to say that AFC-Canada has contributed over Cdn$75,000 to assist the party in their political campaigns and other initiatives.
Lilmohan, who is also a member of the AFC’s national executive committee, said the meeting unanimously passed the resolutions and also expressed disappointment with Ramjattan for rushing to make a statement rejecting the proposal by the group without first giving it due consideration or having a meeting between the executives of the party to discuss the matter in depth.
“It begs the question what respect you have for your supporters and members who have actually financed your catapulting into Parliament. If you are going to immediately on your feet fail to give due consideration to our request, then you can tell me what respect they have. I am asking for them to give due consideration to the matter and look at it in collaboration with other resolutions,” he added.
Other resolutions, referred to in the letter, are the need to rewrite the political agreement between the AFC and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) to ensure legal enforceability with specific time limits for its implementation and the immediate commencement of constitutional reform and the enactment of a reformed constitution before the next general election.
Concerns were also raised about the functioning of the Valentine’s Day 2015 Herdmanston Accord. AFC-Canada recommended that the party assess its very survival and purpose of existence because it has no independent collective representation in Government and its support base is decimated.
The group also called on all party members and supporters in Guyana and the Diaspora to hold the leaders of the party accountable to the high ideals, morals and aspirations that the party was founded upon.