A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), the major opposition political party, launched its manifesto for the 2025 General and Regional Elections on Friday, with ambitious promises for the party’s first 100 days in office and an even bigger goal of eliminating all forms of poverty.
Presidential Candidate Aubrey Norton said the manifesto, styled a Compact with the People, is about putting Guyanese first. He emphasised that the party wants to focus on the well-being of citizens.
Among the party’s plans are:
Increasing the old-age pension to $100,000
Increasing the tax-free threshold to $400,000
Hiking the minimum wage for public servants to $200,000
Giving each post-secondary student $50,000 monthly
Giving electricity subsidies of up to $10,000, and water subsidies up to $5,000
Giving a $120,000 cash grant to every child annually
In the party’s first 100 days, the manifesto states that APNU wants to make a cash transfer of $100,000 to all adults, pass a national budget focusing heavily on expanding social programmes and the productive capacity of the economy, raise the tax-free threshold and old-age pension, implement a sustainable agriculture programme in every region, and pay the students’ $50,000 stipend.
Additionally, in the first 100 days, APNU vowed to “significantly increase” the stipend given to Toshaos, and other local leaders, and double public assistance.
APNU’s 2025 General and Regional Elections (Photo: News Room/ August 15, 2025)
APNU, which was part of a coalition government with the Alliance For Change (AFC) in office from 2015 to 2020, has been sharply criticised for failing to deliver of many of the bold promises it made before entering office. On Friday, Norton doubled down on statements made by party candidate Dexter Todd, claiming that the coalition could not make good on its many of those promises because the private sector withheld support for the government from 2015 to 2020.
Additionally, Norton was questioned about the party’s plan to deal with any ensuing inflation given the planned cash transfers. He expressed much confidence that an APNU government can manage any ensuing ramifications.
“We’ve said very clearly that, particularly as it relates to local products, you have to have sustainable agriculture across the country. If you have wage increase and you do not increase production and your producivitvity, what will happen is that you will have plenty money chasing little goods.
“We saw 77% increase in wages between 2015 and 2020 and we didn’t see inflation and the high cost of living that we’re seeing now,” he explained.
Beyond these statements, the manifesto noted that APNU’s “people-centred development strategy” will allow households to enjoy a liveable income and quality social services.
And in so doing, the party declared: “We will eliminate all forms of poverty (such as food poverty) and ensure a comfortable life for all.”
APNU’s masterplan for doing so will focus on:
Creating a new economy, favouring an investment and demand-driven model to achieve inclusive growth and shared prosperity
Maximising the revenues the country earns from the oil sector
Reducing financial waste, inefficiencies and corruption in government spending
Expanding the non-oil economy
Building infrastructure to expand the productive capacity of the economy
Support micro and small enterprises more
Embrace more data collection and analysis
APNU is one of six political parties contesting the upcoming elections.
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