General Secretary Amna Ally yesterday said she would not be giving an update on whether the party’s executive has taken a decision on the holding of its delayed the 21st Biennial Delegates’ Congress.
“The party’s business is dealt with at the level of the party and not in the public so I will give no update,” General Secretary Amna Ally told Stabroek News yesterday.
Ally had previously told this newspaper that the holding of congress was delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are in a pandemic… We have to have congress and ideally we would’ve had congress this year but with the pandemic we definitely can’t…our party is a lot of people and we can’t bring all those people into one place during this pandemic,” Ally explained in March.
Similar sentiment was expressed by party leader David Granger, who announced during an interview broadcast by APNU at the end of April that “congress will be held when the Central Executive Committee (CEC) decides it can be held safely.”
During the same interview, Granger announced that the CEC had been presented with a report on the feasibility of holding the overdue meeting in “some form” but was still to make a decision.
Granger had said that a committee that was convened to investigate the matter submitted a report to the CEC at its meeting on April 21. He did not reveal any details about its contents and instead said that the recommendations will be implemented following the next CEC meeting, which should have been within a fortnight. Ali was asked yesterday whether a decision had been made as yet.
The delayed congress has been a source of much concern, with some members protesting Congress Place and others expressing concern that Granger intends to delay the meeting so that he can hold on to leadership. Granger has, however, been adamant that the only delay is as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
