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…maintains its parliamentary selections were ignored
The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) says that while it regrets the departure of its former Chairperson, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, it wishes her well in her future representation of Guyanese in Parliament, as part of the Opposition.
One day after the WPA would have announced its exit of the APNU, citing “decision-making” and leadership issues, Sarabo-Halley, recently selected by to return to Parliament to represent the APNU, took her exit from the WPA.
The former Minister of Public Service has given no comments on her decision to leave save for confirming that she was no longer a member. Even so, in a press release today, the WPA gave only well-wished to Sarabo-Halley.
“WPA received the resignation of Sister Tabitha Sarabo from the party. She served the WPA in the highest councils of government and we see her as an asset to the new generation of national leaders going forward. We are proud that we took the bold step in promoting her to high office. WPA regrets her departure,” the party stated.
It also used the opportunity to respond to some amount of public backlash which has accused the party of being rash in its decision to leave the APNU. The decision is not yet permanent as the WPA gave the APNU coalition the ultimatum that it either change its decision making procedures within two months or the exit would be perpetual.
But to those questioning its decision, the party said: “WPA recognizes that its withdrawal from the APNU has led to much speculation in the general public. This is understandable, but, as we said in our letter to the APNU leader, it was a difficult decision that was taken after much deliberation. We wish to assure the public, especially supporters of the Coalition, that it is a principled decision that was not born of expediency.”
The WPA revealed that it had shortlisted four of its candidates to share the allocation of two seats in the National Assembly. The first was to be shared by Sarabo-Halley and Ali Majeed and the second by Kidackie Amsterdam and Deon Abrams.
The party said that it felt that these choices represented a mix of ethnic, gender and generational diversity and would allow more members to gain parliamentary experience. However, this was not taken into consideration by the APNU in the submission of its List of names for the Parliamentary positions.
The WPA repeated part of its driving force behind leaving the APNU, in stating: “While we recognize that the Representative of the List has overall supervision of the process, the practice within coalitions is that the autonomous parties name their representatives. This practice is followed within the wider APNU+AFC Coalition whereby the AFC names its own representatives, but Comrade Granger has stoutly refused to replicate it within the APNU. We reiterate that the APNU is not a political party with a single leader; it is a coalition of independent and autonomous parties with their own leaderships and their separate ideological positions. Thus, each party knows best the kind of representation it requires. No party should determine that for the other.” The WPA was founded in 1974 as a pressure group and became a political party in 1979.
