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‘Trust, confidentiality’ crucial as APNU + AFC partnership barely hanging on – Hughes

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AFC leader, Nigel Hughes

Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Nigel Hughes on Tuesday night said the partnership between his party and the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) was on “life support.”

And the future of that partnership, he said, depends on a favourable outcome from ongoing negotiations between the two sides.

Hughes spoke at a virtual press conference on Tuesday night. In that engagement, he clarified that the AFC is engaging APNU on possibly joining forces again, this time for the 2025 General and Regional Elections.

“The present agreement, that is the agreement between ourselves and APNU which we signed today [Tuesday], is on life support,” Hughes said.

Pressed by reporters on the use of that descriptor, Hughes said the party is guided by past experiences. He also said ongoing talks are merely exploratory but the AFC is interested in collaborating “in the national interest.”

However, he said, “Trust and confidentiality are crucial for us.”

Both parties have appointed negotiators for talks slated to end by March 31.

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

Hughes also spoke about the selection of a presidential candidate, should the parties renew their partnership. According to him, it is not automatic that the APNU leader will be that candidate as was the case in the past.

“Assuming it gets out of life support and gets back on its feet, there has to be a mechanism and a process for identifying leadership.

“For us, that process has to be driven by scientific means and polls and other mechanisms,” Hughes said.

Already, the AFC announced that Hughes will be the party’s presidential candidate. Aubrey Norton, the current opposition leader, who also heads APNU and the People’s National Congress (PNC) which is a party under APNU, said previously that any presidential candidate must be someone from the PNC. Hughes made it clear that he did not agree with that.

The two parties formed a coalition a decade ago. Together, they contested the 2015 General and Regional elections and won. They again contested the 2020 elections together but the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) was elected to government.

In the aftermath of those elections, the AFC did not renew the coalition pact though APNU and AFC parliamentarians remain together in the National Assembly and the majority opposition.

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