Newly-appointed Chief Elections Officer (CEO) for the PNCR 2021 Congress, Vincent Alexander is set to provide a report on Wednesday to the party’s Central Executive Committee on its readiness for Saturday’s scheduled 21st Biennial Delegates Congress or whether it will have to be postponed to next year.
According to party sources, a motion was moved at the committee level on Friday by member Annette Ferguson requesting a review of the party’s systems in place for the congress and for an assessment to be done to determine its readiness.
“This is just to ensure that everything is in place, you know congress is slated for December 11th which is Saturday but since the Chief Elections Officer was only recently appointed it is only fair to hear from him as to whether all systems are in place for the elections to be held,” a source told this newspaper.
The source said that the report is expected to be delivered to the party’s central executive on Wednesday.
Stabroek News attempted to get a comment from Alexander, who is an opposition-nominated commissioner on the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), on his new role but all attempts were unsuccessful.
The party held its nomination day on November 12 ahead of its planned December 11 congress.
All eyes are on the contest for the post of party leadership with seven nominees. Current Chairperson of the Party, Volda Lawrence, Basil Williams SC, Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon, Aubrey Norton, Dr Richard Van West-Charles, Carl Greenidge and Sharma Solomon are the nominees for the post of leader.
Thus far, Harmon, Norton and Van West-Charles have launched campaigns to position themselves as the best persons to lead the Party back into office after it was defeated by a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly back in December 2018 and then at the March 2020 polls. Of the others, only Williams has accepted the nomination publicly.
Recently, the party announced that its Central Executive Committee had met and deliberated on a conflict of interest that arose within the Accreditation Congress Committee.
Following the deliberation, Carol Smith-Joseph, Annette Ferguson and Ganesh Mahipaul all resigned from the Committee. This now leaves Mortimer Mingo as the only original member of that Committee.
“The CEC, while recognizing the right of Delegates to support candidates of their choice, reasoned that a conflict of interest arose where members of the Accreditation Committee, which is responsible for selecting the Delegates who would be voting for candidates, are at the same time openly campaigning for candidates of their choice,” the statement related.
The Accreditation Committee is responsible for accrediting delegates to vote in the elections and according to sources within the Party, the process is far from nearing completion. While some Party members are awaiting their accreditation, others are expressing concerns over the list of delegates.
And speaking to the elections process, the party said that it will be conducted in two stages with the results for each stage being declared before moving on to the next. Stage one would see the election of the Leader, Chairman, two Vice-Chairpersons and Treasurer while the second stage is for the election of members to the Central Executive Committee.
With the coronavirus pandemic and its limitation on large gatherings, the PNCR would be hosting simultaneous elections across the country on Saturday.
