The campaign of Dr Richard Van West-Charles, one of the prospective contenders for the race to be People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) leader, has called on General Secretary (GS) Amna Ally to recuse herself from the party’s elections process.
In a release issued on Wednesday, Van West-Charles accused Ally of openly taking sides and supporting one candidate.
The release stated that the GS’ behaviour is “untoward, unethical and unacceptable” and is in violation of the party’s principles. Such an approach, it pointed out, is unprecedented and never adopted by any previous GS.
According to the release, in the instance of an election, the role of the GS, as head of the party’s secretariat, is to ensure the process is free, fair and transparent and represents the true and legitimate will of its members. “To ensure the integrity of the election process and results we must not only pay lip service to its fairness but we must give certainty to it,” it said
Ally was present at the launch of the campaign of Joseph Harmon, who is also contesting for the leadership. Her presence was seen as an endorsement of his candidacy although she did not speak at the launch.
Meanwhile, the campaign also criticised the circulation of a list purporting to suggest persons who should be elected Leader, Chairman, Vice Chairman (2), Treasurer and Central Executive Members (15) to members. It informed that the list in circulation is allegedly attributed to candidate, Aubrey Norton, who is identified on it as the person to be elected as Leader and proposes Van West-Charles as a Committee Member.
However, Van West-Charles’ campaign said he distances himself from the list and that the presentation of such a list is “deceptive, disingenuous and misleading at best.” It also opined that such a list is disrespectful of Dr Van West-Charles and other candidates who are likely to come forward in other positions. Further, it said West-Charles was not consulted by Norton or any agent purporting to act on his behalf in the composing of a list that is “offensive” to the candidate and his campaign.
While the release acknowledged that Van West-Charles cannot speak for others who have been named on the list, it said he was calling on Norton “to unequivocally distance himself from this contrived mischief and effort to deceive and undermine the desired ethical code of conduct governing this election.”
The campaign said it views such machinations as an effort to gaslight supporters and as such deems it as unacceptable while stressing that such actions do not support the ethical principles which should guide the Party in this endeavour. It also declared that the party holds in high regard its members’ right to exercise free will to elect the candidate of choice for the position of Leader, Chairman, Vice Chairman, and Central Executive Members.
