AFC to focus on 'walking on its own feet' as Cummingsburg Accord comes to an end

Alliance for Change's Chairperson Cathy Hughes.

The Alliance for Change (AFC) party has implied that they will be parting ways with the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) coalition by the end of the year, when the Cummingsburg Accord expires. Newly elected Chairperson of the AFC Cathy Hughes announced this move during the party's first press conference. According to the former Minister, they made the decision at their National Conference to stay within the coalition until the Cummingsburg Accord comes to an end by the end of 2022.

"We have an agreement that we are a member of the coalition in place until the end of this year. And our party agreed that we are going to stay until the end of the year when it expires," Hughes posited. "We accept that there have been challenges in the relationship that we've had with APNU. We accept that in most coalition, the smaller party quite often is subjected to the perception of them being no longer strong, no longer dynamic, no longer being viable partner according to some, We don't agree with that," Hughes stated. The Chairperson asserted that moving forward, the party will be focusing on rebranding, rebuilding, and getting back on the ground on their own. "Although there is no actual definitive idea as to what will happen post December 31 we do accept that there is a very strong level of support for us to spend the next two years rebuilding, looking internally so that by 2024 we would have regained our strength and that is when we figure, we will be looking at how new coalitions could be formed."

Hughes explained that the party believes in coalition politics and they will be seeking other small parties and even trade unions to form a coalition to contest the upcoming elections.

Leader of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan.

When asked whether the party will considering a coalition with the PPP/C, Leader of the AFC Khemraj Ramjattan said, " if they do good things, as an Alliance for Change independent party, we are going to support them if they ensure that they do far more structured distribution of the oil monies." The APNU+AFC signed the Cummingsburg Accord in 2015 when they defeated the People's Progressive Party/Civic during the 2015 General and Regional Elections. In 2019, they renewed this agreement paving the way for them to contest the March 2020 Elections as a coalition where they lost.