Up to 2 am today, no official results from the PNCR Biennial Congress’s election of office bearers were announced however reliable sources say David Granger, 66, has prevailed overwhelmingly against closest rival Carl Greenidge, winning the post of Leader of the PNCR.
“Granger won by a great margin,” a party official disclosed at 2 am on the condition of anonymity. Sources say Granger got around two-thirds of the roughly 650 votes cast
It was the second time in just over a year that Granger has defeated Greenidge in a PNCR contest. The last time it was in the campaign to be named the PNCR’s candidate for the general elections. Then, the race was closer.
The election of Granger is significant as it draws a line under the tenure of Robert Corbin as PNCR Leader and reposes three key positions in one person: Leader of the opposition, head of opposition coalition APNU and now PNCR Leader.
The elections – the culmination of the three-day PNCR 17th Biennial Congress experienced hours of delay in the commencement of the voting process and the count went way into the early hours of today.
Up to press time last night, the only position that had been officially decided in the PNCR elections was that of Chairman, with Basil Williams receiving the most votes for that post.
A source within Congress Place said that the counting of votes for the position of Leader of the PNCR began at around midnight. This newspaper has learnt that about 650 votes had been cast for this position.
Stabroek News understands that there have been problems with accreditation of delegates and that the list of some 800 persons was yesterday expanded to over 1,000.
General Secretary of the PNCR Oscar Clarke at 11:11 hours last night said that the voting was still ongoing and the counting will commence after. He said that the Returning Officer Michael Somersaul had made no declaration of any results as at that time. The voting was scheduled to have commenced at 08:30 hours and end by early afternoon but this was not to be.
After the completion of the vote count for the position of party leader, the delegates cast their vote for 15 persons out of a list of 85 persons, to be on the Central Executive Committee (CEC). The Returning Officer said that he was make the official announcement on all of the results only after the completion of the casting and counting of the ballots for the persons for the CEC.
