Senior member of the PNCR Lance Carberry says nominations for the position of leader of the party are in and are being processed and the party will make an announcement in one week as to the persons nominated.
Among those expected to take part in the leadership race are current Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of A Partnership for National Unity David Granger and Carl Greenidge, former minister of finance under the PNC administration.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, Carberry, a former member of parliament for the PNCR, said that the details of the nomination process will be revealed at a press conference that the party will convene in about one week or at the most ten days’ time.
“This is a process and you may get all sorts of speculation. At the press conference we will not only speak about the nomination process but also the arrangements for the Congress itself,” he said. The nominations for the posts of Leader of the PNCR and other positions would have been submitted by June 15, 2012.
Greenidge is said to be one of the leading persons in the race for the leadership of the party. But when asked about this he preferred not to reveal much about how the prospects look for him at the moment.
“I will be making a statement on this matter in due course,” said Greenidge when approached by this newspaper some days ago. He said that some of the groups have nominated him to contest the leadership post of the party but said that up to that time, the process had not been completed.
At a General Council Meeting on March 2, 2012, the party announced that it would be holding its Congress from July 27-29, 2012. The theme of the Congress is ‘A United PNCR Securing Our Future through a Government of National Unity.’
Leader of the PNCR Robert Corbin has confirmed that he is not seeking to be re-elected to the post and this throws open the door for new names to be considered.
Former member of Parliament for the pNCR Aubrey Norton, when asked about his expectations for the Congress, said he expects Greenidge to be the leader of the PNCR.
Norton fell out of favour with the party leadership and was not included on the list of parliamentarians after the November 28, 2011 general elections. He last served in the Ninth Parliament and was the shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs.
He suggested that there is a new modus operandi in the party where the Leader of the Opposition is focused on the parliamentary side of things while the leader of the party will focus on rebuilding the party and strengthening its base.
Norton was not shy in voicing his support for Greenidge to be the new leader of the party. He said the he believed Greenidge and Granger should work together to strengthen the opposition and build a stronger PNCR.
Norton said that the days of the “maximum leader” are over and that there should be a number of persons in the party, all of whom have influence and all of whom have constituencies.
In speaking to Stabroek News some weeks ago, Granger said he believes the position of party leader and Leader of the Opposition should be unified and confirmed that he will be contesting for the leadership position in the PNCR.
Former MP of the PNCR Vincent Alexander said that the party must undergo a regime change to its leadership and noted that the extent to which Corbin would not be contesting is the extent to which the way is cleared for a process of regime change.
Alexander said that who the party leader is should be a matter of who has the best platform and who seems best poised to take the party forward. He said that the party has to get back on the ground and rebuild itself. He said too that the party has to define its relationship with A Partnership for National Unity and forge a definition of what APNU is in the future landscape of the country.
Repeated efforts by this newspaper to elicit a comment from Corbin over a number of weeks have proven futile.
