President says no talks yet between APNU and AFC on ‘personalities’ for Prime Minister

Discussions between the five-party APNU coalition and its major partner – the AFC – has not yet addressed the question of President David’s Granger’s running mate for the March 02 elections. This was confirmed by the President himself when he spoke with reporters Wednesday morning.

APNU and the AFC signed the so-called Cummingsburg Accord to contest the 2015 elections on the agreement that the Presidential Candidate would come from APNU and the Prime Ministerial Candidate from the AFC. The AFC recently voted to replace Moses Nagamootoo with Khemraj Ramjattan as their choice for Prime Ministerial Candidate.

APNU and AFC are in negotiations to review the Cummingsburg Accord, and Ramjattan recently expressed confidence that he would be chosen.

But President Granger said the discussions have not yet come down to that. He said that the negotiations currently centre on the Coalition’s core principles and the joint manifesto will deal with policies.

“So, we haven’t come down to personalities,” the President declared.

He revealed that the parties which make up APNU – the Peoples National Congress, the Working Peoples Alliance, the Guyana Action Party, the National Front Alliance and the Justice For All Party – have concluded their negotiations and the AFC has accepted APNU’s core principles.

In the APNU discussions, he said the WPA has proposed cash transfers to citizens from the oil revenue, but the President said the parties are neither against or for it, but would like more information on how much will be needed, who will get the funds, and for what purpose.

“We need to decide how much will be coming and the profits must be shared with other national needs – infrastructure, social development, agriculture development, and so on.

“So we don’t know how much we are getting.  So we’re asking our partners to address their minds to how much needs to be spent, and for what purpose and to whom.”