Hughes takes over leadership of AFC as Ramjattan assures members of party’s relevance

Nigel  Hughes was on Saturday declared the new Leader of the Alliance for Change with 149 votes to his main rival Sherod Duncan’s 62. The Chairman of the Party is now David Patterson whose 150 votes exceeded Juretha Fernandes’ 69.

The party hosted a successful 8th National Conference concluding a highly competitive campaign to elect the team of new leaders who will take the party into the 2025 general elections.

This was the first time that none of the surviving founding members of the Party were vying for the position of leader though founding member Raphael Trotman is now the General Secretary.

The remaining position on the executive was filled by Michael Carrington the new Vice Chair.

In his message to the congress, outgoing leader Khemraj Ramjattan sought to assure the membership of the party’s continued relevance as a third force.

“Although third parties have little chance by themselves of forming a government…they do have relevance in ethnic-based societies in the sense that they tend to bridge the racial divide,“ Ramjattan said.

Delivering the charge to the delegates and observers, Hughes immediately co-opted leading members of the opposing slate to be part of the Executive. He then went on to deliver his vision positioning the AFC  as “the force” in the upcoming 2025 election.

The Leader urged the Party to undertake a comprehensive review of its performance in office to examine the missteps that lead to its loss of office in 2020 so that it can take  the lessons from the past in crafting a pathway to the future.

In great detail he outlined the future thrust of the Party and its commitment to reach out to all Guyanese irrespective of political persuasion, all key stakeholders and civic organizations including the private sector, trade unions, women’s and youth movements.