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HomePoliticsNORTON SAYS DOOR OPEN TO COALITION; HUGHES SAYS IT’S SHUT!

NORTON SAYS DOOR OPEN TO COALITION; HUGHES SAYS IT’S SHUT!

“I think the prospects of anything positive coming out of further engagements, the prospects are marginal. We have moved on and we’re heading straight to elections as I’m sure APNU is.” — Nigel Hughes

With that firm statement on Friday, Alliance For Change (AFC) Leader Nigel Hughes effectively shut down any remaining hopes of a revived coalition between his party and the People’s National Congress Reform-led A Partnership for National Unity (PNCR-APNU).

Hughes’ remarks came during a press conference held just hours after PNCR Leader Aubrey Norton indicated that, despite deep disagreements, his party was still willing to keep the conversation going. “We have been negotiating for months with some impossible suggestions like we should take 35 per cent and the AFC should get 65 per cent,” Norton said. “But we leave the door open. I’ve been around politics long enough to know in a few minutes or seconds, there could be changes to the political dynamics.”

The tone from both leaders, however, reflected the political wear and tear of months of negotiations that, by now, appear to have fully unraveled. The APNU and AFC, once coalition partners that took power in 2015, have struggled to rebuild their alliance ahead of the September 1 elections. That partnership had already failed to deliver a second term in 2020.

Over the past few months, the two sides attempted to chart a new agreement, but negotiations quickly became bogged down in disputes over power-sharing arrangements. Talks initially centered around a 65-35 split in favor of APNU. The AFC later countered with a 65-35 proposal in its favor—a move Norton flatly dismissed. A counter-proposal from APNU offered a 70-30 division, with APNU again holding the majority.

In what the AFC described as a final effort to salvage the partnership, the party on Monday submitted a revised offer through an intermediary. That proposal returned to a 65-35 split in APNU’s favor but included new elements: AFC would name the prime ministerial candidate, APNU would choose the presidential candidate, and the List Representative would be a mutually agreed independent. The AFC also sought the right to nominate the Speaker of the National Assembly—subject to APNU’s agreement.

But by Tuesday, the AFC said APNU had rejected the proposal and, in a surprising turn, also insisted on selecting the AFC’s nominee for prime minister. That demand crossed a line for Hughes’ party. “This demand is totally unacceptable to the AFC,” the party said in a statement issued Wednesday night. “It is now clear the APNU was and is not interested in a coalition.”

Tensions escalated further when news broke that Juretha Fernandes, an AFC Member of Parliament, had been named as APNU’s prime ministerial candidate—a move the AFC said blindsided them. Fernandes, along with fellow MPs Sherod Duncan and Deonarine (Ricky) Ramsaroop, have since had their AFC memberships revoked. All three, formerly senior figures in the party, have now aligned themselves with APNU and are expected to appear on its slate of candidates for the upcoming elections.

With Hughes declaring the coalition talks effectively dead and internal defections weakening the AFC, the 2025 campaign landscape is coming into focus: a fractured opposition and a growing sense that, for now, the alliance that once defined Guyana’s political scene is firmly in the past.

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