–Ramjattan affirms; says AFC will decide whether to form partnership with APNU for upcoming elections

DESPITE accepting Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton’s recent unilateral decision to reshuffle the “shadow” positions of the opposition parliamentarians in the National Assembly, Leader of the Alliance for Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan attempted to “flex” the party’s muscle by saying Norton cannot make decisions for the AFC.

Specifically, during a press conference on Friday, he said Norton has no say in whether the party will be forming a partnership for the upcoming 2025 General and Regional Elections.

“It is the AFC’s decision as to whether we contest with APNU as a partner, it is not Aubrey Norton’s decision,” Ramjattan related.

Speaking on the previous move to form a coalition with APNU, the AFC Leader said this happened because of “consent.”

The “Cummingsburg Accord” signed by the APNU and AFC on February 14, 2015, saw the parties uniting in a coalition that would see them win the 2015 elections, but that seven-year partnership officially ended on December 31, 2022, as was announced by AFC Leader Ramjattan.

“I rather suspect that the partnership will be discussing these matters at the appropriate time… we [AFC] will be making our decision [and] APNU will make its decision but it’s by consent of the AFC as to whether we go into [a] partnership,” Ramjattan said.

In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle last year, Ramjattan had said that the party had made the decision since 2022 to leave the coalition.

Norton, in 2023, had maintained that there were no regrets about any of the decisions that led to the AFC abandoning the coalition with APNU.