Long after the contest between David Granger and Carl Greenidge for the PNC/R’s presidential candidature had passed and gone, Party insiders were alluding to what they claimed was a lingering division between the rival camps that wasn’t going away. It transpired, those sources say, that the rift persisted through the 2011 general elections, extending itself into the more recent contest between the two men for the leadership of the PNC/R.
The rivalry may not have amounted to a public confrontation but party members and supporters were certainly aware of an ongoing feud in which persons took sides, using the media both to make their favured candidate’s case to be Party Leader as well as to put down the rival candidate.
Issues pertaining to the leadership of the PNC/R have arisen previously but the Party is altogether unaccustomed to a controversy of such magnitude. The Party’s position, it seemed, was simply to have the controversy spend itself while ensuring that it did not turn into a public brawl. The two protagonists were sufficiently diplomatic in their own handling of the situation.
Indeed, they could afford to be since there appeared to be no shortage of voices making noises on their behalf.
There are rumours that as was the case when they contested the presidential candidature, the division has extended itself beyond the election of Granger to the post of Party Leader; except of course that this time around Granger is definitely in need of help to mend a fractured PNC/R and will need all hands on deck, including those who supported his opponent in the race for the Party leadership. Some Granger supporters have already pointed to what they say is a lack of maturity in the rival camp. They make the observation that whatever rivalries may have existed during the campaign should now be subsumed beneath the bigger challenge of rebuilding a broken PNC/R and positioning the party to meet the expectations of its supporters.
Except of course that that is not quite the way that it appears to be working out and in the final analysis the ball will be firmly in the court of the party leader. It is he who must take the lead in healing such wounds as exist, and fashioning – from amongst his supporters and non-supporters alike – a team that can support him in what, unquestionably, will be the yeoman task of putting the PNC/R back together again.
