Leaders of the two factions of the main parliamentary opposition appear to be at odds over who should lead if they decide to team up again to take on the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) in this year’s General and Regional Elections. Not only has the indecisiveness given ammo to the ruling party and pro-government commentators, but it has also placed opposition supporters behind a hazy glass ahead of yet another highly anticipated contested poll in the oil-producing nation. The stakes could not be any higher.
From all indications, the leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Nigel Hughes, is willing to step aside to allow for a consensus presidential candidate but has not thrown in the towel. Despite saying that his party’s main objective is to get the PPP/C out of power, his party remains adamant that he should lead.
The AFC has however created a condition that could curtail its absolute domination if Hughes plays second fiddle to Aubrey Norton, the Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform, which is also the largest faction within the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).
The AFC said that the party from which the Presidential Candidate is named shall not be permitted to nominate and/or occupy the position of the Leader of the List.
This means (theoretically and if accepted by the APNU) that if Norton is named Presidential Candidate, he will not have the power to appoint and/or recall parliamentarians from a potentially combined APNU+AFC List of Representatives. But these are just one of the measures that the AFC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) listed as “approved conditions for coalition with APNU”.
The other is the AFC’s willingness to offer up 60 percent of the bounty to the APNU. This would give the APNU a majority within the coalition, but on the flipside, anyone other than Norton would have control over parliamentarians’ appointments and removal.
The APNU has not yet weighed in on the AFC’s “resolutions”, but the PNCR has in the past, made it clear that Norton must be Opposition Leader and, come election, contest as the presidential candidate. It is on this very basis that Joseph Harmon, who became the Opposition Leader, was ousted by his party when Norton became PNCR Leader. The consolidation of power is traditional; the party had argued. That occurred mere months after an AFC Member of Parliament voted against the Coalition government in a controversial No Confidence motion that led to the fall of the APNU+AFC government and the rise of the PPP/C.
Norton is on record saying that the PNCR wishes him to be the presidential candidate but has also given him the option of denying that position if he chooses. He made that statement four months ago. Norton added that no one outside of the party can make that decision, which is the responsibility of the party’s support base and the party itself.
UPDATE at 09:00hrs:
Hughes, along with AFC Executive Member, David Patterson, met with Norton today, Monday, March 31, 2025. Hughes wrote this on his Facebook page:
