With questions raised over the integrity of the PNCR’s Georgetown District Conference polls, prospective candidate for party leader, Dr Richard Van West-Charles has proposed reforms for the conduct of party elections during its upcoming Biennial Congress.
In a letter to PNCR executive Lance Carberry, Dr Van West-Charles outlines a range of reforms, including the secrecy of the ballot, intended to assuage concerns about the need for the party’s internal processes to be more transparent and democratic. “The recent experience with the electoral process in the Georgetown District has clearly underscored the urgency for our Party to take the necessary action to ensure that we embark on a road guided by international best practice [regarding] the holding of any election be it in a political party or any organization for that matter,” he explained in the letter.
The Georgetown Conference resulted in PNCR executive and MP Aubrey Norton losing the Chairmanship of the Georgetown District to party Co-Chair Volda Lawrence in polls that he later described as fraudulent. The party has subsequently dismissed his claims as baseless and intended to bring the party into disrepute, a claim he has also dismissed. The controversy over the District Conference has prompted calls for transparency in the conduct of the party’s internal elections.
In the lead up to the PNCR’s 16th Biennial Congress in August, Van West-Charles said that it was essential for the leadership and general membership to ensure every effort is taken to do the right thing and allow the party to walk with its head high. “Let the membership be empowered through one of the critical elements of empowerment, their right to vote and be counted fairly,” he said.
Among his proposals is for the list of nominees for all positions to be posted at all Party Offices four weeks before the elections. Further, that a list of the number of delegates allocated to each group, classified by region and neighbourhood, must be posted at all Party Offices four weeks before the polls and that any party member shall have a right to request in writing a copy of the list or parts of it.
He has also suggested that any party member shall have the right to object to the number allocated to any group. In this scheme, he recommended that an impartial committee be responsible for processing each objection and the number should be adjusted accordingly.
Also, he proposed that a list of the names of all delegates, classified by group, neighbourhood and region, must be published four weeks prior to the elections. Any member shall have the right to object in writing, he explained, to any name on the delegates list. Again, he added that an impartial committee should review each objection.
According to Van West-Charles a corrected list of delegates should be posted one week before the elections, to which objections could be made.
He has also proposed that voting must be secret, suggesting that members exercise their franchise in booths, one delegate at a time with a photo ID to verify his or her identity. He said there should be twelve boxes and voting should be as per Region and Arms. All counting, he added, should be done in the presence of delegates while candidates should be entitled to nominate two representatives to observe the count.
He emphasised that no candidate should serve on the accreditation committee, suggesting instead that all candidates for the position of party leader be entitled to nominate one representative to the accreditation committee. Additionally, he is arguing that all candidates who have accepted nominations should have no operational relationship to the electoral process. Once the list of persons accepting nominations is available, he said, the Congress Committee must inform all Regional, District and Group Committees that all requests by nominees to speak with their membership must be accommodated.
Meanwhile, he said the printing of ballots must be done by an independent source and no one related to any of the candidates should have any linkage to the process. He added that the ballot must have a single unique identifier.
Van West-Charles also proposed there be an external Returning Officer.
“I do hope that you together with the membership of the Accreditation Committee, the members of the Central Executive and all others you deem relevant to ensuring fairness, justice and transparency would embrace these values and ensure that same would be respected and upheld,” he wrote to Carberry. “A transparent process allows the chips to fall where they may but most important it allows the membership to say it is fair and we proceed in a united way to strengthen our Party and prepare for local government and national elections.”
