With a completely diminished support base since it lost power in 2020, the Alliance for Change (AFC) is now attempting to cling to the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) to gain support.
This was according to General Secretary of the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, following an announcement by the AFC that it is in talks to re-join the PNCR in a coalition ahead of elections later this year.
“Both parties are on life support. But the AFC are attempting to cling on to the PNCR to gain support. The PNC has more support in this country than the AFC has ever had,” Dr. Jagdeo said during today’s press conference.
On Tuesday evening, at a hurriedly called press conference, AFC leader and presidential candidate said that the parties met and an agreement which is on “life support.”
He also made it clear that PNCR leader and presidential candidate of that party Aubrey Norton was not going to be the presidential candidate of any coalition that may be formed.
In a Stabroek News report today, however, Norton made it clear that he will be the presidential candidate of any coalition that the PNCR is part of because of the fact that it is the larges opposition party in the country.
Jagdeo and observers content that the AFC will not contest the elections alone as it would show that the party has no support on the ground.
The PPP General Secretary is also of the view that the AFC has been plotting to have Norton removed for Norton to become the presidential candidate of the coalition.
“But it’s interesting to see how the AFC is trying to strongarm the PNC to ger Norton to step down,” he said, adding that the plot involved the commissioning of a poll to show that Norton was not popular, which would put Hughes next in line.
“The AFC is hoping somehow to pressure Norton into stepping down,” he said.
A source within the PNCR told Guyana Daily News yesterday that several PNCR executives who ran against Norton for the top leadership position in the party and lost, have been attempting to undermine him by convincing party members to support Hughes as the presidential candidate.
