285 delegates representing the ten administrative regions, the diaspora, Youth and Women arms of the Alliance For Change will meet this Saturday, June 11, 2022, to decide the leadership and direction of the party for the next 2 years. The Conference was due in 2020 but was delayed by the COVID pandemic. Many issues will be decided on at this Conference, but the main feature will be the election of the leadership of the party.
Khemraj Ramjattan, who founded the Alliance for Change in 2005 along with Raphael Trotman and Sheila Holder, currently serves as Leader of the party and is contesting for the position again. Under his leadership, the Alliance for Change has grown from three seats in the National Assembly in 2005 to win six seats in 2006 (one stolen by the PPP) and then broke the PPP’s hold on Parliament in 2011 by winning seven seats and creating a minority government. Now 17 years since Ramjattan founded the party, the AFC has proven the viability of a third- force in Guyana’s politics.
Challenging him for the position of leader is David Patterson who currently serves as the party’s General Secretary. Patterson who first became General Secretary of the AFC in 2012 has served in the executive of the party for a full decade. Patterson led the AFC team in negotiating the 2015 Cummingsburg Accord where the AFC and A Partnership For National Unity (APNU) agreed to a 60/40 allocation of parliamentary and cabinet seats. He then later led the AFC negotiating team for the 2020 Coalition Accord where the AFC got 30%. Under his stewardship, the AFC has moved from holding the balance of power in a hung parliament to being part of a Coalition government and now being a vibrant opposition party.
More, In the Ring.
