Declaring that there is a time for everything and much work yet to be done, newly-elected PNCR Leader David Granger accepted his ‘third hat’, lauding outgoing leader Robert Corbin.
After a prolonged period of vote counting following Sunday’s elections, Granger, who is also Leader of the Opposition and Leader of APNU, was early yesterday morning declared the winner by a huge margin over his closest rival, former finance minister Carl Greenidge.
A PNCR statement issued yesterday said that the election of Leader, Chairman, Vice Chairper-sons, Treasurer and members of the Central Executive Committee for the next biennium was conducted under the supervision of the Returning Officer, Michael Somersall and other members of his team.
The Chairman of the PNCR is Basil Williams, while the Vice Chairpersons are Volda Lawrence, and Dr George Norton. Ronald Bulkan was elected treasurer.
The release said the results for the Central Executive will be declared later.
It quoted Granger as referencing Ecclesiastes 3 of the Holy Bible, “A time for everything…” The release said he told the delegates “…this is a time for building and a time for embracing.”
He added that there was much work to be done.
He thanked Corbin for his years of stewardship as party leader, for deciding not to run as presidential candidate in the last elections, for initiating primaries for the selection of the presidential candidate for 2011 and for the formation of APNU.
Granger thanked all those who worked to make the Congress a success and invited Greenidge to join him in efforts to strengthen the unity of the party, the release said.
It was the second time in just over a year that Granger 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 elections – the culmination of the three-day PNCR 17th Biennial Congress — experienced hours of delay in the commencement of the voting process.
Stabroek News understands that there were problems with accreditation of delegates and that the list of some 800 persons was expanded to over 1,000.
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).
