With the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) 21st Biennial Delegates Congress just days away, contender for the office of Party Leader Dr Richard Van West-Charles is hoping for a transparent process as the Party, for the first time, conducts simultaneous elections across the country.
During a brief telephone interview with Stabroek News yesterday, Dr Van West-Charles said that he is of the belief that the Party is adequately prepared to host the polls. However, he did say that there may be some elements with the intention to run contrary to the PNCR’s constitution.
“The constitution of the PNCR has devised a transparent process and once everyone adheres to it there is not going to be a problem. In every election globally, in the first world and in the third world and in the developing world and the developed world, you always find one and two outliers of behaviour that runs counter to the established norms,” he said.
“Like everything else we just have to hope and ensure that the safeguards are in place. At this point, I do not see an issue. All matters are being address-ed at the moment to ensure that we are in a state of readiness,” Van West-Charles added.
The party held its nomination day on November 12 ahead of its 21st Bien-nial Delegates Congress, which is scheduled for December 11.
The most hotly contested post will be for leadership of the party and there are seven nominees. Current Chairperson of the Party, Volda Lawrence, Basil Williams SC, Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon, Aubrey Norton, Dr Richard Van West-Charles, Carl Greenidge and Sharma Solomon are the nominees for the post of leader.
The PNCR is the largest faction of APNU. Thus far, Harmon, Norton and Van West-Charles have launch-ed campaigns to sell themselves as the best persons to lead the Party back into office after it was defeated by a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly back in December 2018 and then at the March 2020 polls.
In a statement following nomination day, the PNCR said that the Congress will be for delegates only, decentralised, and hybrid. It will be conducted over one day at Party Congress Houses and approved venues in the respective regions.
Speaking to the elections process, PNCR said that it will be conducted in two stages with the results for each stage being declared before moving on to the next. Stage one would see the election of the Leader, Chairman, two Vice-Chairperson and Treasurer while the second stage is for the election of members to the Central Executive Committee (CEC).
With the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its limitation on large gatherings, the PNCR would be hosting simultaneous elections across the country.
The current leader and former President, David Granger is not seeking re-election and is currently on leave from the party. Based on the information provided by Stabroek News’ sources, Norton racked up the most nominations out of the group.
On Saturday, immediate past Chairman Basil Williams accepted the nomination and in pleading his case for election, he said “the conduct of the elections for the 21st Biennial Delegates Con-gress could be quite taxing as it is unprecedented in the annals of our Party that is, decentralised to all other regions in the country and in the North American region my team and I, of necessity, must continue to assess that the process is transparent.”
When asked about the process, Van West-Charles said that it is going to be the same in every region.
“It is just that the process is disaggregated but there is no variation from one region to another. Everything is similar in every region. Everybody would cast their votes and we would have those tallied and declared,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Accreditation Committee member Ganesh Mahipaul told Stabroek News that the CEC will be meeting today to discuss, among other things, the preparations for the Congress along with the elections. He added that “some decisions will be made” and communicated via a statement from the Party following the meeting.
The PNCR Congress will open with an address from current Leader Granger. Thus far, outgoing Chairperson Lawrence has remained silent on the process and whether she would accept the various nominations when the Congress commences.
