AFC v/s PNC tussle continues

THE war of words between opposition leaders Khemraj Ramjattan and David Granger is escalating.
The AFC was created out of the perception that ousted PNC and PPP parliamentarians, Raphael Trotman and Khemraj Ramjattan would have led a viable third force, in rotational leadership capacities that would have toppled a PPP/C government from the pedestal on which the electorate had placed that Party.
They entered the 2006 general elections with their high-priced public relations consultant, who was allegedly paid by someone that was subsequently convicted of drug smuggling, touting their victory at the polls.
However, although Trotman attracted a lot of his support from disgruntled PNC members, Ramjattan did not manage to get any real showing of support from the traditional PPP enclaves which he had targeted. Even in his home village his votes did not even tally up to the number of relatives he has living there.
And the much-publicised party of racial unity was exposed when AFC member Gaumattie Singh was denied a promised parliamentary seat in favour of Chantelle Smith, with much consequential public furore as the slighted Gaumattie Singh moved to expose what she considered hypocrisy and deceit, even racism, within the party that she had helped in founding.
The fledgling party deteriorated even further with leadership squabbles between the main protagonists, until Trotman has practically, to all intents and purposes, withdrawn from that Party, leaving the field clear for an unpopular Ramjattan to lead the AFC to the polls.
However, the loss of former PNC supporters who have abdicated from that party because their support was for Trotman and not Ramjattan would impact greatly on the AFC in the upcoming polls.
Ramjattan is attempting to salvage the tatters of the party by conscripting former ROAR members, especially those in the diaspora, who have hired ROAR public relations consultant, Salahuddin Nausruddin (Salim), and transported him from the USA to Guyana. In effect the AFC, in its original composition no longer exists because it has now become a poor cousin to ROAR, which original AFC members feel is a betrayal of all that the AFC promised during its formation.
Enter Granger, who has effectively dissolved Burnham’s PNC in its pristine form so that it is today neither fish nor fowl, but APNU, with defunct political bodies that only exist in name sharing equal platform space with Burnham’s party, while PNC stalwarts who have selflessly and loyally supported their party relegated to the sidelines, especially with the prime ministerial position being promised to an outsider. Granger himself is considered an outsider by many party loyalists, who are appalled at the dissolution of the PNC over which he has presided.
For the first time in decades there would be no PNC going into a Guyana general election. Burnham must be turning in his grave.
However, the two opposition parties are facing off, because there is no doubt that the PPP/C will once more win the elections. The fight therefore is for the second place slot as the main opposition party, which is a place both the grafted AFC and the grafted APNU are coveting.