Dr Richard Van West-Charles is standing by his campaign’s claim of falsification of applications for membership to the PNCR, in the lead up to its Biennial Congress starting today.
Van West-Charles, who yesterday withdrew from the race for party leader and endorsed Winston Murray, said in a statement that his submission to the party was based on the work of field operatives who carried out a random sample survey of party groups.
On Wednesday, Convenor of the Accreditation Com-mittee for the Congress Lance Carberry said that a verification exercise undertaken after the official claims and objections period did not dispute the integrity of either the general Membership Register, or the Delegates’ List. He said too that it did not substantiate claims by van West-Charles of the inclusion of persons who were “dead, migrated or did not sign the membership application form” on the membership register.
However, in a statement yesterday, Van West-Charles said his submission was compiled by visits by field operatives, and he charged that persons who were implicated in the falsification were the ones who were later asked by a verification committee to investigate the claims. “This is a clear indication that there was never any intention to discern the truth but rather to cover up,” he said.
He noted that included on the list of dead persons is Yvonne Dookeram of Dartmouth, who died since 2006 and whose name had been objected to by Vincent Alexander’s campaign ahead of the 2007 Congress. Additionally, Van West-Charles noted that other persons-Francis Mingo, Joseph Roach and Elverine Fordyce, all of Belladrum-died three ago. “Certainly those persons could not have applied for party membership in 2009,” he said, adding that their inclusion on the list is a clear indication that there was systematic centralised falsification of membership applications.
Additionally, he has compiled lists of persons who claim they did not sign membership forms as well as others who claim they were approached by party officials to sign forms and others who said they were given delegates badges outside of the registration process for the last congress. “This demonstrates the need for the use of acceptable photo identification at the time of the voting,” Van West-Charles said.
‘No photo ID’
Carberry said Wednesday that sweeping statements, including the claim of the “systematic falsification of the party membership forms” and the “systematic padding of the membership register,” were unsupported by any of the information provided. Further, he noted that no information was provided to the verification committee to substantiate any of the allegations. He said any further queries cold be submitted to the Congress.
Addressing the call for the use of a photo ID for voting, Carberry noted that the party membership card does not carry a photo ID while that experience nationally shows that many people don’t have either National ID cards or passports. As a result, he said a “sensible set of ways” had to be found to identify them. “It is my responsibility as head of the accreditation process to ensure that anybody issued with an ID card as a delegate is properly identified before the card is issued,” he said, explaining that the list of delegates would indicate the name of the person, the party group and region to which he/she belongs and also a “unique number” for the identification. “No two members should have the same number on the ID card,” he added, saying that as far as possible precautions were taken to ensure that one delegate would have one vote.
Immediately before the last congress, there was controversy over the spike of the party’s membership to 23,000, including 6,000 members of the youth arm. On Wednesday, PNCR General Secretary Oscar Clarke, asked about possible contributors to the membership falling to 8,000+ members ahead of this year’s congress, said a number of people did not renew their membership. “In the run up to any congress or any conference, the party membership leapfrogs,” Clarke said, noting that renewal was an annual process.
At the last party general council meeting on March, Clarke explained, the numbers stood at between 2,000 and 3,000, when he announced the deadline for renewal of membership. “By the time the thirty-first of May came the numbers had gone to 8,000,” he said, “I suspect, a number of people just didn’t renew their membership.” He added that the party would look at the issue in the future.
‘Mischievous calls’
Meanwhile, the PNCR said yesterday that several persons, purporting to speak on behalf of the party, have been inviting people from all over Guyana to attend the Congress. As result, it explained that the Secretariat has been bombarded with calls from persons seeking clarification about the “mischievous” calls.
According to a statement issued by the party yesterday, it is being claimed that arrangements are being made to pay the transportation costs to bus the people to the PNCR headquarters where the Congress is scheduled to be held today and tomorrow. “The PNCR would like the public to know that only those delegates and observers already identified by their Groups and whose names have already been submitted to the Secretariat will be allowed entry to the Congress,” the party said, noting that other than these accredited persons, only Special Invitees, who have received letters of invitation and accredited members of the press would be allowed entry.
The party added that it regrets that it could not accommodate all of the interested persons but inadequate space of the Congress Hall at its headquarters makes it impossible to accommodate such a large gathering.
