PNCR leader Robert Corbin yesterday said he had not addressed the issue of contesting for the leadership of his party at its Biennial Congress in August.

“I have not had time to address my mind on that subject,” Corbin said at his first news conference since he returned from the US, where he underwent surgery. He was at the time addressing the report made by PNCR Executive Amna Ally to party members at a recent district conference in Berbice. He added: “What I can say categorically is that I intend to carry out my functions as leader of the People’s National Congress Reform, without fear or favour, until the congress of the party. That is my prime concern.”

Corbin also emphasised that in the period until the holding of the congress, there are more “urgent” matters confronting the PNCR. According to him, as leader of the party he did not want to be “diverted by distractions” that could get in the way of serious party work that requires immediate attention by members. “I don’t want to be distracted in what I call an exercise of speculation which I made clear at the last time springs from a lack of understanding of how the [PNC] functions and its constitution,” he said. Corbin noted that there is nothing in the party’s constitution which requires members to declare candidacy for any office, since it is dependent on nomination by a group–a process which he said has yet to begin for the August congress.

He urged party members not to be distracted from the main challenges facing the party into “minutiae,” which could be playing in to the hands of the PPP, “who I believe, like others, would love to have us distracted on other irrelevant matters at this time.” He added that members of the party are competent enough to deal with the internal elections at the time of congress.

Corbin identified the verification of the voters’ list as well as preparation for local government elections as being among the immediate issues for the party.

On the former, he explained that there would be publication of a preliminary list and that this would require verification through claims and objections to ensure that all registered voters are included on it. “That cannot wait because the elections commission has signalled that it would be publishing that list shortly for claims and objections,” he explained, “and one urgent task for the party and my job… is to get that voters’ list in order and to get our party members focused on that particular task.”

Corbin also noted the need for preparation for local government elections proper, saying that proposed legislative reforms would see significant changes in the electoral system that would require the “mammoth task” of an education programme for the electorate. In this regard, he was critical of the fact that “no real educational work has begun on these changes” and noted that it was an issue of grave concern to the party and the now abandoned bipartisan Task Force on Local Government Reform. “In fact we had suggested that education work could have been commenced some time ago but for some reason there has been reluctance even when funding for this process was offered freely by USAID where the government declined to accept,” Corbin further said.

Central Executive Member Ally had told the Berbice District Conference that Corbin “will be contesting the leadership” and confirmed her report when subsequently contacted by Stabroek News, saying it was “a fact.”

Corbin had left open the possibility of his candidacy when asked at the start of the year. He said that the question of his “electability” is for the judgement of members and supporters, who will decide the direction of the party at the congress.

Already, management consultant Dr Aubrey Armstrong and former health minister Dr Richard Van West-Charles have indicated an interest in contesting for the party leadership at the congress. Armstrong, a PNCR executive, had not made a decision at the start of the month but did not rule out the possibility; while Van West-Charles has been open about candidacy.

Corbin has continued to face down questions about his leadership as well as calls for him to step down since the 2006 general elections, where the party recorded its worst election defeat. Recently, the PNCR has been criticised for taking a soft approach to the government, raising doubts about whether it was providing effective leadership of the opposition. Acknowledging the need to retool and restructure, the party held a leadership retreat at the start of the year where it identified several areas for attention, including how it is financed, its use of technology, its outreach to its membership as well as its outreach to youth and to non-traditional supporters, particularly in the Indo-Guyanese and Amerindian communities.