There was a major bust-up in the fledgling Alliance For Change (AFC) party yesterday with its secretary resigning after not being given the parliamentary seat she said she was promised.

She also flayed the top two AFC leaders saying that the party does not bode well for Guyana.

Attorney-at-law Gaumatie Singh who said she would be handing in her resignation to the party today, also made public an e-mail between herself and the party's presidential candidate Raphael Trotman, where he told her that new parliamentarian Chantalle Smith was only given the seat to ensure her a salary but would resign the seat as soon as the party can guarantee her an income and then Singh would be given the seat.

Singh at a fiery press conference yesterday said she was promised a seat by the party leadership once the party had secured more than three seats. The woman said that people had already started to congratulate her on her parliamentary seat. So, she was shocked on Thursday morning when she saw a GECOM notice listing the AFC's members of parliament as Trotman, Khemraj Ramjattan, Sheila Holder, David Patterson and Smith.

She said that less than six weeks ago she had been informed by Ramjattan in his capacity as leader of the party and Holder, vice-chairman, and as recently as last week Friday, that she was the number four person chosen for parliament.

Last evening in a press statement the party said that the leadership was taken aback by its secretary, "being so disgruntled with her non-selection as a parliamentarian." While not addressing some of the core issues Singh raised at her press conference, the party said her remarks were "most unfortunate" while adding that the selection of the five names out of a long list would have caused disappointments.

"The leadership, however, asserts that the process for the selection was entirely democratic. At the leadership meeting on Tuesday 5th of September 2006, where Mrs. Singh was a participant, the short-listing of names and the criteria for the final selection were both given her approval," the statement said.

The statement said that all the names on the shortlist are persons of merit and competence and that any of the persons could have been selected. "The judgment call was then given to the representative of the list to make; and, he so did."

The party said it would accept Singh's resignation.

"The leadership wishes to recognize the efforts Mrs. Singh put in during the campaign and all the work she did since the launch of the party in October 2005. It is indeed a departure that has saddened the entire leadership, which still holds her in high regard and esteem," the AFC said, adding that the statement would be the final one on the issue.

 

Bluff

Appearing upset, Singh said after reading the newspaper notice she immediately called Ramjattan and questioned him.

"He tried to bluff his way through in giving me an explanation that he did not know what was printed in his papers [and] I am now bringing his attention to news. I thereafter called Sheila Holder [and] she said the same thing. . . She doesn't know what I am talking about, 'Gaumatie have you received an e-mail?' [she asked me]," Singh reported. She said for the longest while she had not received an e-mail from the party because they were all busy campaigning and she was assigned in Region Two, Pomeroon\Supenaam and had to spend weeks away from home.

The woman said she then called Trotman but his number was busy but shortly after she received an e-mail from Trotman circulated to all the members of the steering committee informing them about the list of persons selected for parliament.

She responded by firing off a response to the e-mail in which she informed Trotman that he had "made a grave mistake in your selection and certainly I am not going to leave it as that simple. You show blatant and total disregard for my work when you know fully well my vehicles, my time, the closure of my Essequibo office, the weeks I spent away from my family, personal cash, etc. Nevertheless, if the AFC was to pay me could you all start the calculation? I have plans ahead and it will certainly take some of you by surprise just as you think you surprise the supporters of the AFC. You certainly prove to be another PNC and dictator," her response concluded.

"I replied and it was out of haste that I did mention that I see him now as a PNC and as a dictator. My apologies I have no hard feelings against the PNC but seeing the man there certainly tells me that he has executed high handedness in choosing the persons to sit in parliament," the woman said yesterday at her press conference.

Trotman's e-mail reply to her said that he was sorry that Singh felt the way she did and he had a very hard decision to make between her and Smith. "Because she (Smith) is the CEO and we have to guarantee income for her, it was necessary to provide a benefit until the foundation and the way forward is settled. As soon as this is in place and I believe that it should not be more than a few months, Chantalle will resign to work on promoting the foundation. The seat will be yours if you are still interested and that is a solemn promise on my part. I hope that you will still be with us.

"Because I know that you are upset I will forgive the reference to being a 'PNC dictator'. The irony is that the PNC types see me as the greatest traitor to their cause for forming the AFC and 'splitting' their vote. My life was even under threat twice during the campaign. Making decisions is never easy but someone has to do it and in this instance that someone is me. I will continue to hold you in high regard and will always value the work and sacrifice that you have put into making the AFC what it is today," the e-mail said.

Singh said the reason given by Trotman for Smith's selection for parliament is one that does not auger well for the country. "I think persons should be chosen to serve as members of parliament to serve the interest of this nation and not to have a self-serving interest. Definitely from the e-mail there it is a self- serving interest if you are going to tell me someone is going there to guarantee her income, I think that is a blatant disrespect for the people and supporters of the Alliance for Change and the people of this country," a still upset Singh said.

"And those are my concerns. . . as a matter of fact some people may think that I shouldn't move to the media. I think I have a right to move to the media because there are people outside there who are looking forward to see what is happening," she said.

Asked if party unity was not more important than a seat in parliament, Singh said she believed so. "...I think it was blatant disrespect and deceit for misleading me into believing that I had a seat and broadcasting it all over where I was working in the courts that I was selected for the parliament. That means they have no respect at all for my integrity and my character."

Singh then trained her attack on Ramjattan saying he has to stand strong as the Indian people who supported the AFC did not come to the party because of him since 75% of them do not trust him.

"They voted for the Alliance for Change because they thought that Gaumattie Singh was the person who was going to be selected in parliament to give representation on Indian people's behalf. "Where is the ethnic balance (among the AFC parliamentarians) that we have stood on the platform and talked about? Look at the composition that was selected for parliament?"

When asked what she had brought to the party the lawyer said in the area where she campaigned in Region Two, 1,722 persons voted for the AFC and when compared percentage wise to what Ramjattan and David Patterson brought out of Region Six and Nine respectively she did far better than they did.

Singh said further that she had letters of resignation from 25 AFC members and more are to be given to her and most of those resignations were from the Canal Number One area.

She said there was no turning back for her regarding her decision to resign but the issue would test the party's strength. However, she acknowledged that other than not being granted the parliamentary seat she had no other problem with the AFC.

Former Alliance For Change (AFC) secretary, Ms. Gaumatie Singh (left) chasing AFC presidential candidate Raphael Trotman (right), for not being given the parliamentary seat she said she was promised