Badal implores APNU+AFC to put competition for power aside and support PPP as legitimate Gov’t
Almost a decade after endorsing the Alliance for Change (AFC) and later going on to become a supporter of the APNU+AFC coalition, businessman Robert Badal wants the coalition to set aside its rivalry with the governing People’s Progressive Party in the interest of national development.
Badal’s comments come months after he formed and led the Change Guyana political party into the March 2020 elections as a political opponent to both the governing and opposition parties.
But he believes that with the elections now over and a government installed, that competition for power should now be set aside.
“Election is one time when you compete after elections you should put your hands together and support because personalities maybe different but we set out to achieve the same thing,” he told the News Room on Thursday from his Kingston office at the Pegasus Hotel.
Badal said his hope is to see the main parties move away from the hostile politics that continue to destroy the country.
He recognizes the PPP as the democratically elected government through a free and credibility process and called on the Coalition to respect that.
The APNU+AFC has filed two elections petition in the High court challenging the credibility of the March 02 2020 elections.
Those elections removed the coalition from the seat of government with President Irfaan Ali refusing to engage APNU+AFC as opposition given its insistence that he won the elections by fraudulent means and as a consequence was illegitimately elected.
Badal, who had contested the elections as a challenge to failed leadership, believes that it is time to put grievances and competition for power behind.
He has put forward recommendations for a long-term development plan for the country.
He explained that the plan should be one that has the input of all stakeholders including political parties, the private sector, and social and civic groups. Badal also believes that the plan should be legislated in Parliament so that whoever gets into government there is no change in the direction of the country.
“This is 2020 and 2030 will soon confront us lets us have a 50-year plan that all parties subscribe to.”
The Pegasus Hotel owner said he was engaged by both President Irfaan Ali and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo and believes that their outreaches to the small parties are timely.
“We have to get away from the kind of politics that is opposing and hostile; it benefits not one. We have to get politics that is inclusive and collaborative and participating,” Badal said pointing out that given the history of the to major parties he doesn’t see this happening anytime soon.
It is in this vein that he believes that the role of small parties have now become crucial to encourage that inclusivity.
The main issue that was made clear over the past 5 years and during the 5 months rigging process is that the PNC-AFC was/is not interested in unity anything. Either they are in charge or nobody is. This is about personal power and personal perks and nothing much else.