Latest update May 10th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 09, 2014 Features / Columnists, PPP Column
The AFC had promised to initiate a new culture into our politics. This led to the expectation that in so far as certain things are concerned, the AFC would try not to do things the way the two other main political parties do.
The PPP, for example, has been roundly criticized for the manner in which it selects its presidential candidate. It is not the delegates to the Congresses of the PPP that make this selection. Neither is it the membership. The presidential candidate of the PPP is selected by a small and closely knit cabal known as the Executive Committee of the PPP.
In terms of the development of a more democratic manner of selecting its presidential candidate, the AFC was expected to leave such a decision to the membership of the party. It is hoped that whenever the time comes for that decision to be made, that it will be the membership of the party that will make the decision. This would lend to a more democratic way of selecting the party’s presidential candidate, and would demonstrate that the AFC is operating in a different paradigm to that of both the PPP and APNU.
Consistent with allowing either the membership or delegates to choose its presidential candidate, the leaders of the AFC ought to stay clear of making endorsements. Whenever a top leadership figure within a political party makes an endorsement of a particular individual, such an endorsement carries significant weight that can act as a counterbalance to free choice which should ideally characterize democratic selections.
The membership of the AFC is bound to be influenced by any endorsements emanating from the top leadership. After all, the endorsement is coming from the existing top leadership of the party. The more junior leaders and those seeking elevation with the party structure, may be disinclined to go against this endorsement for fear of it affecting their own future prospects within the party. For this reason and especially to ensure a more democratic process, the AFC should stay clear of its top leaders endorsing anyone.
There is another reason why this should happen. There may be some very good young persons within the party who may have harboured ambitions to become the AFC presidential candidate. It places those persons at a serious disadvantage if apart from having to muster sufficient support to gain the nod of whoever elects the presidential candidate, they now have to counter the weight of a candidate being endorsed by an outgoing leader of the part. The scales are definitely tipped against the young and less senior leaders when the top leadership signals where their support lies.
There is also another important consideration. The AFC, because of how it has operated, has created an expectation both within and without the party that there will be a rotation of the party’s presidential candidate.
That expectation has been that in one year, the party’s ticket will be headed by a Guyanese of African ancestry and in the following election a person of East Indian ancestry will head the party.
I am sure that the AFC will respond to the effect that its decisions about a presidential candidate are not based on any ethnic arithmetic. That may well be so, but the public and many AFC supporters have an expectation that; come this time around someone other than an East Indian will be the party’s presidential candidate. It need not be a person of African ancestry but may be someone of indigenous ancestry.
Why, for example, should someone like Valerie Lowe who many feel brought significant Amerindian support to the AFC was not endorsed by the top leadership of the party to assume the position of presidential candidate. She would have also had the added advantage of being a woman, the first female since Mrs. Janet Jagan to be a presidential candidate.
In support of the candidacy of Moses Nagamootoo, the top leadership of the AFC may be aiming for tactical advantages on the belief that he would be best suited to make inroads into the PPP’s support based on the showing of the party in Berbice in the 2011 elections.
But the more important consideration given what happened in 2011, is whether the person endorsed can galvanize support within Region Four which remains the largest voting bloc in the election and one which will remain critical to the AFC, at the minimum, holding the balance of power in a new parliament.
The other important consideration is how will the endorsement of Moses Nagamootoo affect the establishment of a grand pre-election coalition between APNU and the AFC. APNU had opposed Moses Nagamootoo as the Speaker of the National Assembly. It is hard to see how they will now accept a coalition either headed by or involving him.
Will this endorsement effectively signal the closing of the door on any such coalition?
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