The PNCR’s disciplinary committee has summoned several youth members of the party to answer disciplinary charges and it has also once again ordered PNCR member James McAllister to answer pending charges by January 12, 2008.
Stabroek News understands that those summoned are former Guyana Youth and Student Movement (GYSM) national chairman Chiyedza James, former GYSM executive members Juliana Gaul and former GYSM vice chairman Peter Livingstone.
This newspaper learnt that one of the charges against the three is that they wrote letters to the country’s dailies before and after the party held its biennial congress in July, 2007.
The three were written to in relation to the charges and asked to either respond by letter by January 5, 2008 or to appear before the disciplinary committee on Saturday at Congress Place, Sophia.
Stabroek News also understands that McAllister, a PNCR-1G MP, who is currently out of the country on a sabbatical, was once again summoned to appear before the committee or to respond by way of letter. McAllister was first summoned to respond to the charges in August, 2007.
Mc Allister had eleven charges brought against him including his refusal to vote in favour of the party’s position on the recall legislation in parliament in August 2007; talking to the media against guidance given by PNCR Leader Robert Corbin and the party Chairman Winston Murray; misconduct for issuing a press statement against guidance given by Corbin and Murray.
One source told this newspaper that one of those summoned received the letter from the committee after the January 5, 2008 deadline for a response by way of letter. They have all responded by way of letter.
In their responses, they have said that the charges were too vague and as such they could not be guided as to what to defend especially as it relates to the letters written to the press. Those summoned also have the right to be represented by another member of the party.
Meanwhile, the committee has cleared former Region Ten GYSM Chairman Randy Nurse of two of the three charges brought against him by the party but it has called on him to apologise to a colleague for ethnic slurs, a charge he has denied.
One party official on condition of anonymity said that even before he was given a hearing, the party had debarred Nurse from contesting for office in the GYSM executive and had subjected him to disciplinary action with no recourse to justice at the level of the party.
The official noted that McAllister and James were also subjected to disciplinary action without recourse for justice when the party removed them both from their elected offices – in the case of McAllister as the party’s chairman of the Region Three (West Demerara/Essequibo Islands) and in the case of James, debarring her from contesting the GYSM’s top leadership position at the GYSM biennial congress held in August, 2007.
The party’s constitution makes provision for the disciplinary committee to suspend or expel the member from the party; suspend or remove the member from office; exclude the member from holding party office for a specified period of time; reprimand or warn; or impose such penalty as the committee may consider appropriate. Nurse, James and McAllister were sanctioned even before they were given a hearing by the committee.
Twelve members of the party, who supported former PNCR Central Executive Committee member, Vincent Alexander in his bid for the top post of the party, during the party’s last biennial congress have been identified for disciplinary action by the party based on a motion passed by the congress. Those identified include Alexander himself, Deborah Backer, Dr Dalgleish Joseph, Ivor Alleyne, Joseph Hamilton, Hamley Case and former GYSM Chairman, Andrew Hicks. (Miranda La Rose)
