ANUG to announce “merging of Third Forces’

A New and United Guyana (ANUG) will hold a press conference today to announce a coalition with some of the 14 new parties which have sprung up ahead of the March 2020 elections.

In an invitation to the press conference, ANUG said that it would announce “the merging of Third Forces” and what they can offer to Guyana.

While ANUG chair Timothy Jonas declined to offer more details on the initiative, Stabroek News understands that the Federal United Party (FEDUP) has agreed to collaborate with ANUG ahead of the elections.

Attorney-at-law Chandra Sohan, a member of FEDUP told Stabroek News that his party is not inclined to align with any other political organization but after discussion has agreed to collaborate with ANUG.

On November 6, ANUG along with FEDUP and The New Movement (TNM) issued a public statement in which they pledged not to support either of the two main parties: PPP/C and PNCR in the upcoming general elections.

As part of that statement ANUG indicated that they had invited FEDUP, TNM as well as representatives of the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) and Citizens Initiative to a meeting to discuss common ground and to formulate an accord for mutual support to achieve common objectives.

The party has repeatedly stated that its intention is to bring an end to the competition for ethno-political dominance in Guyana’s politics by creating a governance system which provides for the equal participation at the executive level of Guyana’s main political forces, an electoral system that provides for elected constituency representatives while maintaining proportionality, and a representative legislature independent of the executive.

As such while they have acknowledged that they are unlikely to win the election they have indicated that their desire is to use any seat secured after March 2 to maintain a balance of power.

Though FEDUP has agreed to collaborate with the ANUG going forward, founding member of The Citizenship Initiative Ruel Johnson has told Stabroek News that his party has not made a decision on the invitation.

Additionally both the LJP and TNM have declared that they will not be coalescing at this time.

In a post on their Facebook page, TNM declared that after much discussion, consensus was reached that they will not be coalescing with any other political body, neither current Coalition nor Opposition, including new (small) parties.

“We will enter into National Elections March 2020 as an independent body with the people’s best interest at heart. Although dialogue is important and we support everyone who is working towards making Guyana better, our followers and members are against coalescing and we humbly respect their wishes,” they declared.