-party says measures taken for greater transparency
Six persons have been nominated for the position of Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) and the party says that it has been implementing measures to ensure that the election process at the upcoming Congress is transparent.
General Secretary of the Party, Oscar Clarke, at the Party’s weekly press conference yesterday, announced that those persons nominated for the post are Dr Aubrey Armstrong, Robert Corbin, Winston Murray, Aubrey Norton, Dr Richard Van West-Charles and Basil Williams. Clarke disclosed that Corbin had received the most nominations (162) followed by Dr Van West-Charles with (21).
Clarke also disclosed the names of the 16 persons who have been nominated for the post of Party Chairman. These persons are Dr Aubrey Armstrong, Deborah Backer, Oscar Clarke, Robert Corbin, Clement Corlette, Hamilton Green, Dr Dalgleish Joseph, Kadim Khan, Volda Lawrence, Winston Murray, Aubrey Norton, Dr George Norton, Cammie Ramsaroop, Clarissa Riehl, Dr Richard Van-West Charles and Basil Williams.
Twenty-eight persons have been nominated for the position of Vice Chairman, one of whom has been classified as ineligible to be a candidate. For the post of Treasurer, twenty-three candidates have been nominated (with two deemed ineligible) while of the 133 persons who were nominated to be Central Executive Members, fifteen of them have been identified as being ineligible to contest. Clarke said that in most cases when a candidate was found to be ineligible it was because that person was not in good financial standing with the Party.
The persons nominated have until Monday to indicate their acceptance of these nominations.
Meanwhile, an Accreditation Committee, headed by Lance Carberry has been set up. According to a statement issued by the party, “the Terms of Reference for this Committee begins with the verification of Party Members and Groups through to the provision of ID Cards for all categories of Congress Participants and the provision of a complete List of Delegates to the Returning Officer who would be responsible for the conduct of the Congress Elections for members of the Central Executive of the Party.”
According to the statement, to deal with the issue of the verification of the Party’s membership, “a List of Financial Members, as of 31 May 2009, was circulated by the General Secretary. These Lists were to be on display, from 19 July through to 9 August 2009, at the Meeting Places of the Group, so that they could be inspected by members who could raise any queries or objections with the Party Group Officers. All such queries and objections should have been sent to the Party Secretariat and to the Accreditation Committee for investigation and appropriate action as required.”
In addition, the List of Members for each Party Group has been made available for inspection, by members of the Central Executive Committee of the Party, Regional Party Officers and persons who have been nominated as Candidates for the forthcoming Elections, at the Congress at Congress Place.
The statement said that “all Party Groups have submitted their list of delegates for Congress based on their qualified membership. They have also supplied their list of Observers. This information was with the Secretariat since 19 July 2009 and has been made available to the Groups for verification until 9 August 2009. Thereafter, the list will be finalised by the Accreditation Committee.”
“The List of all persons who have been nominated as candidates, for the Elections at the 16th Biennial Con-gress, has also been posted at all Party Regional Offices and at Congress Place from 27 July 2009”, the statement said.
According to the party, these measures “were instituted to remove the basis of previous claims of weaknesses in the system and to ensure greater transparency in the Party processes. Similar procedures are being implemented for the Election process, which will include the involvement of invited observers. Details of these matters will soon be made public.”
However, the party acknowledged that “despite the new measures implemented” it “has already received complaints and is in the process of investigating complaints made by members of the abuse of information obtained through its new transparent processes.” “These reports are serious and raised issues of confidentiality, which can otherwise jeopardize the interest and welfare of some of our members. Consequently, certain additional measures are being put in place to guarantee our members safety and welfare”, the party added.
Carberry said that it was important to get the registration process in order so that there could be no dispute about the accreditation of persons for the party’s Congress. He said that one of the concerns by Party members was ensuring that the election is free and fair. Carberry said that the Central Executive of the Party received proposals for the conducting of the elections and he said that these are under consideration. He said that as soon as the proposal for conducting the elections has been agreed, it will be circulated to every Party Group within the country.
When asked how many voting delegates are expected to be at the Congress, Clarke said that
this will be announced by the Accreditation Committee, but said that he expects it to be in excess of 1200 people.
The election held for the Chairman of the Georgetown District ended in acrimony last month with numerous charges and counter-charges of rigged elections. Incumbent Aubrey Norton was beaten by Volda Lawrence. Norton and others later expressed dissatisfaction at the manner in which the poll was conducted. Corbin later sued Norton over statements that had been made. Since then, Van-West Charles and others have argued for safeguards against rigging.
Meanwhile, when it came to funding the Congress, the party noted that over the years it has funded its congresses through contributions from its members and supporters. It intends to do so this year but has noted that the global financial crises and the poor state of the Guyana economy may negatively affect this.
The Party’s Congress will be held from August 21-22.
