Joining with other parties will take away from ‘traction’ – Robert Badal

Presidential Candidate of the Change Guyana Robert Badal believes that joinder of lists or forming a coalition with any other party will decrease the attention his party has amassed since its launch.

“I think we getting a lot of traction…,” he said at his party’s weekly press conference on Tuesday, adding that “some people have been telling me that everybody wants to join with [Change Guyana], everybody feel you’re the prize.”

Eleven parties were approved to contest the March 2, 2020, general and regional elections, six of which were launched in 2019.

The New Movement (TNM), A New and United Guyana (ANUG) and the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) on Sunday announced that they will be joining their lists to contest the elections.

While the three parties will appear separately on the ballot paper, once the results of the election are known, the combined votes they receive will be calculated and go towards the allocation of seats on Regional Democratic Councils and the National Assembly.

The parties said they also reached out to Change Guyana but Badal said there was no real negotiation but rather a phone call attempting to convince him to sign an agreement.

“Let me give you the facts, somebody called me as we were campaigning up Essequibo Coast and he say ‘man you know what, tomorrow is deadline, why we don’t join the list, we can sign and then discuss after,” Badal told the media.

Badal said, “I don’t do business like that…people hold you to ransom after.”

Badal said he requested a meeting with the parties but the time was limited to make the submission.

The parties had until the end of January 17 to inform the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) of their intention to join their lists.