A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Friday confirmed that they will contest the 2020 general and regional elections as a coalition.
However, there is no indication that there will be a review of their coalition agreement, or what is called the Cummingsburg Accord, under which they contested and won the May 2015 elections.
APNU Executive Member and Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge said “at this point in time, that formula has worked.
“There is no signal at this point in time, from the parties that there is an intention to change.”
Greenidge nonetheless indicated that there can be changes if all parties of the Coalition agree.
The AFC decided to contest separate from the APNU at the recent local government elections, in a move to prove that the Party has not lost its support. But its showing at the polls were rated as poor as it did not win any of the 79 Local Authority Areas that were contested.
But Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and AFC Executive Member Moses Nagamootoo told a joint press conference today that his Party has maintained its support base, which is some 10% of the voters countrywide.
And this, he says, is enough to ensure the coalition wins the upcoming general elections.
“Even if it were, 1%, it would have been enough to push the Coalition over to victory,” Nagamootoo posited.
Chairman of the AFC and Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan also shot down claims that the Party has been demolished.
He reiterated that the coalition is “united and strong” and “that is how it is going to be for 2020”.
“Rest assured, there will be another coalition government in 2020,” he said.
AFC Executive Member and Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson further asserted that “if it ain’t bruk, don’t fix it” as he endorsed the decision for the APNU and AFC to team up again.
Volda Lawrence, Chairperson of the Peoples National Congress Reform (PNC/R), the largest Party in the APNU coalition, added that “the people of this country have found favour in a coalition government.”
