{"id":5195,"date":"2014-08-28T09:19:25","date_gmt":"2014-08-28T14:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/?p=5195"},"modified":"2014-08-28T09:23:28","modified_gmt":"2014-08-28T14:23:28","slug":"afc-kick-starts-election-campaign-in-region-nine-stabroek-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/?p=5195","title":{"rendered":"AFC kick starts election campaign in Region Nine (Stabroek News)"},"content":{"rendered":"

– Receives mixed views about possible coalition with APNU\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Abena Rockcliffe<\/strong>
\n\u201cConstitutional reform is an extreme necessity to Guyana, if former President Jagdeo taught us nothing else, he taught us that all that power should never be given to one human being\u201d- Nigel Hughes \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"AFC<\/a><\/p>\n

The Alliance For Change (AFC) has turned on its power switch and is now in election campaign mode. The Party, which holds the minority in parliament, has launched its campaign in Region Nine, Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo.
\nCampaign activities commenced in the Region on Friday last and the final meeting was held on Tuesday.
\nThe first to hear about the Party\u2019s plans for Region Nine was Lethem.
\nOn Friday, Chairman of the AFC, Nigel Hughes, held a public meeting at Airport Road, Lethem where scores turned out to listen and \u201cgain hope.\u201d
\nThat session was quite interactive as after Hughes delivered his speech, the questions came pouring in.
\nIn his remarks, Hughes highlighted the Region\u2019s failure at CSEC, the pending No-Confidence Motion against the government, the need for constitutional change and the flaws of the Amerindian Act.
\nA young man questioned whether it was true that the AFC is about to join with A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). He opined, \u201cif so be the case it will secure a landslide victory for the PPP (People\u2019s Progressive Party).
\nThe youth went on, \u201cYoung people don\u2019t want that, we feel like both the PPP and the PNC had their chances and screwed it up; we want change, and we want betterment.\u201d
\nWith that argument, the man told Hughes that the worst thing the AFC can do is to come together.
\nIn response, Hughes stated that the AFC has no immediate plans to do so.
\nBut immediately after that answer, another man, this one more mature looking, took the microphone and suggested that the AFC should indeed coalesce with APNU.
\nHis argument was that \u201cGuyana is crying and the only people laughing are those at the top. We all got to fight and we can\u2019t cuff with one hand, we need both hands to cuff. Guyana is very much in need of change\u201d.
\nHe asked Hughes, if not a coalition, what his party intends to do to \u201cchange the way we are living.\u201d
\nHughes then explained that while a coalition may or may not defeat the government, \u201cwhat we need is change, constitutional change.\u201d
\nHe said that the actions of former president Bharrat Jagdeo showed clearly that never again can Guyana afford to place so much power in the hands of one human being.
\nAccording to Hughes, to see constitutional change is the only reason he entered politics. He said therefore, that the AFC is committed to ensuring constitutional change which, in his belief, will reflect a greater change for Guyana.
\nThe attorney-at-law said, that it must be understood that the AFC holds the balance of power and boasted that the AFC is the only third party in the Region that has been able to attract more votes the second time around as compared to the first time it competed in general elections.
\nStill answering the question as to why not coalesce, Hughes told the Lethem crowd that it must also be noted that the population still votes through racial lines, as people are seemingly not willing to move away from that unproductive method of electing leaders of the country.
\nHe noted that in 2006 when the AFC placed Afro-Guyanese Raphael Trotman as presidential candidate, it gained more votes in areas populated by Afro Guyanese. But at the last elections when Indo-Guyanese Khemraj Ramjattan was placed as the party\u2019s presidential candidate, the party attracted more votes from the Indo-Guyanese communities.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSo while our strategy is still to be realized, the AFC is committed to securing constitutional change that is what we are sure of.\u201d
\nHughes also told Lethem that Region Nine needs a technical school for students who may not want to pursue academics.
\nIn addition to Lethem, the campaign extended to several other villages in the South Rupununi including Maruranau, Shulinab and Baitoon
\nIn the other villages Hughes focused more on letting the residents know what exactly is in the Amerindian Act that is supposed to be \u201cprotecting them.\u201d He pointed out the section that says that the Minister of Amerindian Affairs (Pauline Sukhai) can give away traditional lands to investors even if the Toshaos disagree.
\nThe Act stipulates that the first step is to seek permission from the community to have investors utilize but if the Amerindians do not grant permission, the Minister can then sign on their behalf approving which ever activity, be it logging or mining.
\nThe reaction to this varied, but some residents were furious.
\nHughes told the communities about the low pass rate in Region Nine and attributed it to the shortage of qualified teachers in the Region. He told them too about the Amerindian Development Fund and explained that the AFC asked the government to account for the money it spent on the Amerindians before more could have been approved.
\n\u201cIf they showed our members of parliament what they did, we would have surely approved the money.\u201d
\nThe main concern in Maruranau was education and the \u201cdisturbing\u201d section of the Amerindian Act while Baitoon had a wide range of issues. Residents of the latter community complained about their living conditions, the education offered, \u201call this talk about budget cut\u201d and their lands.
\n\u201cWe don\u2019t know what the government did with all the money you said parliament gave them, look how we living, but they keep telling us about budget cuts,\u201d one resident lamented
\nResidents said that all the government has given to the community in recent times is an all-terrain vehicle.
\n\u201cWe had enough, we are ready to stand up and claim our change,\u201d said another resident.
\nIn all the villages visited, Hughes gave out copies of the Constitution and of the Amerindian Act and made other donations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

– Receives mixed views about possible coalition with APNU\u00a0 By Abena Rockcliffe \u201cConstitutional reform is an extreme necessity to Guyana, if former President Jagdeo taught us nothing else, he taught us that all that power should never be given to one human being\u201d- Nigel Hughes \u00a0 The Alliance For Change (AFC) has turned on its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-5195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latestnews","tag-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/image001-2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4F7T1-1lN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5195"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5197,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5195\/revisions\/5197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}