AFC ‘battle-ready’ for 2020 elections

The Alliance For Change (AFC) is “battle-ready” for the 2020 elections and will launch its elections campaign on Saturday, November 23, 2019.

At a press conference on Friday, the AFC said that some 12 temporary campaign offices will be set up countrywide and its management team and international consultants are working assiduously to meet the objectives.

However, whether the party is able to head into campaign mode on schedule depends on the completion of ongoing negotiations with its coalition partner, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).

The parties are expected to meet again on November 18, 2019 to come to an agreement on a final matter in relation to the revised Cummingsburg Accord.

In the meantime, the AFC has prepared its 2020 manifesto which will be merged with the APNU’s manifesto, creating one document for the coalition.

This too is expected to be ‘hammered out’ following the November 18 discussions.

Updating the media on its manifesto, Deputy General-Secretary, Lenonard Craig, said the party is confident that what it will put forward is valuable to the coalition and the country at large.

“From where the AFC sits, we are clear about what our manifesto will contain and we are clear about an elections campaign we want to carry out but the last stop would be the completion of the Cummingsburg Accord agreement. Once that is completed, then our plans will be dovetailed with that of the APNU and then we move forward from there,” Craig said.

Regarding preparations for the campaign, he informed that campaign offices have already been launched in Lusignan and Corriverton while, on Saturday, another will be launched at Bath Settlement.

In the weeks to come, others will be launched in Onderneeming, Albion and on the East Bank of Demerara (EBD), with several other proposed areas to be decided upon.

“In all, we plan to open 12 offices throughout the country and in every coastal region. That is part of an AFC programme as part of campaign plans, that the AFC is rolling out,” Craig said.

“I wish to let Guyana know that AFC is battle-ready. We desire a partnership with the APNU, it is the preferred way to go in these elections but we are battle-ready and with or without our partners we are ready to go.”

When the coalition parties contested separately at the 2011 General and Regional Elections, the AFC won seven seats with its greatest support of 11,634 votes coming from Region Six where the APNU came close behind in the Region with 10,798.

Meanwhile, that year, APNU won 26 seats with the majority of its votes coming from Region Four at 84,828 in which Region the AFC secured only 10,635.

Over 340,000 valid votes were cast in 2011 in comparison to over 400,000 votes cast at the 2015 General and Regional Elections.

At that election, the APNU/AFC coalition raked in 207,200 votes with the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) close behind at 202,694 votes which presented them with a one seat majority in the National Assembly. — CHRONICLE