The Alliance for Change (AFC) plans to register its concern with A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) over the “unfair†allocation of seats in Georgetown and other parts of the country following the March 18 Local Government Elections (LGE).
“I have had complaints from my members and I intend to talk to Amna Ally about it. That’s a genuine concern that I have and I will want to address it, but the coalition will have to address that,†Leader of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan told Stabroek News yesterday when contacted on the complaints.
The AFC Leader’s comments came in the wake of concerns raised by members that they have been “unfairly treated†in the seat allocation process in municipalities that the coalition won at the LGE. This is particularly so in the capital city where APNU will end up with 22 of the 25 seats available to the governing coalition, sources say.
Ramjattan said that he did not want to expand on the issue until it was settled at the coalition level.
The complaint over the seats would be the first serious challenge for the coalition since the Cummingsburg Accord sealing the pact was hammered out on February 14, 2015. While there has been simmering unease about certain provisions of the Accord not being adhered to, this is the first matter that has triggered broad discontent in the AFC and burst into the open. APNU and the AFC had said that there was a dispute resolution mechanism between the two but nothing has been heard about this since the coalition took office last May.
Earlier concerns that the responsibilities promised to Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, the most senior AFC representative in government, had been diluted, were brushed aside by the party and the coalition.
[quote author=Watooka link=topic=103435.msg686712#msg686712 date=1459172623]
What exactly is unfair? There was no agreement about seat allocations in the LGE.
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The problem with the AFC team that managed to get into government is that they are not showing the results of any work that they have done. Is only Naga who seems to be doing something of sorts. All these guys got perks etc., and now it is all about how to share the loot fairly. What about doing some work instead?
It looks more to me that AFC has been sleeping on the job. In a rush to get their people in government, nobody bothered to even think that the AFC might one day be contesting the LGE. This is standard business practice that you cover your backside. The AFC only stretched out their open hands for a place in the sun.
[size=30px][color=rgb(137, 136, 136)]Opposition Leader Dr Bharrat Jagdeo and former Attorney General Anil Nandlall, yesterday distributed kites along the East Coast of Demerara.[/color][/size]
