The PNCR Disciplinary Committee has dropped two of the three charges it brought against a Region Ten party youth leader in the run-up to the party’s last biennial congress and has called on him to apologise to a member for ethnic slurs.
However, Randy Nurse, a former Region Ten Guyana Youth and Student Movement (GYSM) chairman has denied that charge.
Meanwhile, the party has not held a hearing for the charges against its former Region Three (West Demerara/Essequibo Island) Chairman James McAllister, MP, who is currently out of the country on sabbatical.
Stabroek News understands too that the disciplinary committee, which is headed by party stalwart Cammie Ramsaroop and comprises Melanie Corlette, Shirley Klass, Jeffrey Thomas and Ranwell Jordan cannot find credible charges against the others and are divided on the way forward in dealing with the matter, which came to a head as a result of a motion seeking to have them disciplined for seeking a change in the leadership of the party and bringing it into disrepute.
The remaining ten of 12 PNCR members who had campaigned against leader Robert Corbin returning to office in support of another candidate, Vincent Alexander, have not been summoned. They are former Central Executive Committee (CEC) members Alexander, Deborah Backer, Dr Dalgleish Joseph, Ivor Allen, Joseph Hamilton, Hamley Case, former GYSM national chairman Chiyedza James, former senior Vice Chairman Peter Livingstone; former GYSM Central Executive Committee member Julianna Gaul, and former GYSM Chairman Andrew Hicks.
Nurse was summoned before the committee for allegedly stealing the party’s mattresses, throwing racial slurs and misleading the young membership of the party in Region Ten (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice) by urging them to support Alexander.
Corbin was returned to office unopposed after Alexander and his supporters pulled out of the elections because they had concerns that the party’s voters’ list had been padded. The Alexander faction had called for a verification of the voters’ list but this was denied.
Nurse, a teacher by profession, was summoned before the committee in September and had responded by way of a letter. He was represented by attorney-at-law and PNCR member Deborah Backer, who was also identified to appear before the committee.
Nurse sent a four-page response to the committee, in which he did not defend himself against the charges that he said he had not committed.
A source said that in his letter he pointed to the double standards of the party in disciplining its members.
In the case of an altercation and making racial slurs, he admitted to an exchange with one of his colleagues but not to making any racial slur. He felt that in that instance, since he and his colleague had had a heated exchange, both were culpable, but he was the only party summoned.
The other colleague was a known supporter of the Corbin faction at the time.
The committee asked Nurse to send a written apology, copied to the committee, to the colleague in relation to the ethnic slur. He has denied the ethnic slur.
Stabroek News could not ascertain whether Nurse received a response from the committee and whether he had issued the apology.
However, following the party’s biennial congress, Nurse had issued a public apology through Team Alexander to the colleague. He was cleared of the other three charges.
One senior party member said Nurse was denied his rights by the party even before the hearing. Prior to the hearings, the party had debarred him from contesting for office in the GYSM, the youth membership of the PNCR, and subjected him to disciplinary action with no recourse to justice at the level of the party.
The party official, who preferred anonymity, said it also similarly denied McAllister and former GYSM Chairman Chiyezda James their right of holding their elected office before they were heard.
According to the party’s constitution, the disciplinary authority could have suspended or expelled the member from the party; suspended or removed the member from office; excluded the member from holding party office for a specified period of time; reprimanded or warned the member; or imposed such penalty as it considered appropriate.
McAllister had 11 charges brought against him. These included the refusal to vote in favour of the party’s position on the recall legislation in Parliament in August; talking to the media despite guidance to the contrary given by Corbin and Party Chairman Winston Murray; “alleged misconduct” for issuing a press statement against guidance given by Corbin and Murray that there was going to be a challenge to the party’s leadership at its biennial congress; engaging in press conferences with others without the knowledge of the party when the content of those engagements gave the impression that the PNCR was a divided party with no internal democracy; appearing on, and engaging in, political television campaign advertisements broadcast on VCT Channel 28 and a television station in Bartica, which distorted the party’s position on important issues, and impugned Corbin’s integrity; along with others, deliberately disrupting the opening session of congress causing an unpleasant reaction from delegates, observers and special invitees including members of the diplomatic corps; withdrawing from the business of congress, after congress rejected an appeal by him and others to postpone the party leadership elections; hosting and taking part in a press conference after the congress giving the impression that he and others had not abandoned their pre-congress agenda; engaging in a vulgar and slanderous campaign intended to damage Corbin’s character and integrity; writing letters to the media before and after the party’s congress, which revealed confidential party matters and misrepresented its position on issues, distorting the facts and creating doubts about the party and leadership’s sincerity to fulfil its objectives; remaining seated while others stood at a meeting held at the party’s Region Three office during the recital of the party’s prayer and the national pledge, “displaying disrespect” for the prayer, pledge and Corbin.
On the last charge, McAllister had said he was chairing the meeting in progress, when Corbin arrived and proceeded with his agenda without any notice. His gesture, he had said, was a mark of protest, which was his democratic right.
