Aubrey Norton won Saturday’s contest for the PNCR Leadership by a landslide and several members of his slate snapped up key positions over more seasoned competitors in what will be interpreted as a rejection of the policies of outgoing leader David Granger whose close confidante, Joseph Harmon was also in the race but trailed far behind.
Norton’s election immediately raises the question of if the PNCR will seek to have him enter Parliament and take over the role of Opposition Leader from Harmon who had been shepherded there by Granger after he excluded many senior party officials from the list of MPs
Norton is expected to be installed as the new Leader of the PNCR today, having secured 967 votes compared to 245 for Harmon and 64 for Richard Van West-Charles at the party’s General Elections.
Thirty-five-year-old Essequibo engineer Shurwayne Holder and 22-year-old Berbice businessman Mohamed Mursaline beat out more fancied opponents for the pivotal posts of Chairman of the party and Treasurer, respectively, having benefited from being on Norton’s slate.
“The results are that Mr. Aubrey Norton has the highest number of votes for position of Leader of the PNCR and is poised to be declared and installed as Leader of the PNCR, Mr. Shurwayne Holder has the highest number for position of Chairman, Mr. Mohammed Faaiz Mursaline has the highest number for position of Treasurer and Ms. Elizabeth Niles-Williams has the highest number for Vice Chairperson,” the party’s Chief Elections Officer Vincent Alexander yesterday afternoon told a virtual press conference.
Alexander also announced that there is a tie between for the second position of vice chairperson between Christopher Jones and Vinceroy Jordan but the party will determine what happens next.
Alexander said that the tabulation of results for the 15-member Central Executive of the party is not yet completed and those results will be announced today.
The Chief Elections Officer did not field any questions from the press with host Christopher Jones saying that will be done after the declarations are made today.
Stabroek News tried contacting both Harmon and Van-West Charles but this was futile as multiple calls to their phones went unanswered.
Direction
This newspaper spoke to Norton, Holder and Mursaline following the elections.
Norton said that while he is pleased with the victory, it was not about winning but getting to work to represent the interest of citizens of this country and his two elections rivals promised to work along with him.
He related that both Harmon and Van West-Charles called him to congratulate him and pledged to work with him.
“He [Harmon] called and said he is prepared to work with me. I told him thanks and we will meet and discuss and work out a way forward,” Norton said.
And given that Norton is now leader of the PNCR-dominated APNU+AFC where Harmon is Opposition Leader, Norton was asked if he would now take up that position.
He said it was a decision the party has to make.
“I will meet with the PNCR’s new leadership. We will discuss, strategies, policies, etcetera and then and only then I will discuss which direction we go as a party. I will meet the party first and then collectively we will make decisions. I promised that my approach to governance will be inclusive and I don’t want to pronounce on issues before I discuss them with the party leadership,” he said.
Noting that the party’s constitution does not address the issue of Leadership and Parliamentary positions, Norton posited that ”the Party’s constitution was written at a time when the party leader would either become the president or Opposition Leader.”
“For the first time in the history of the PNC that the leader was not the Opposition Leader was when David Granger was elected Leader and Robert Corbin was still the Opposition Leader”, he said. He further explained that the situation with Granger and Corbin “unified after”.
But while Norton has replaced former President Granger as Leader of the party, Granger remains Leader of the APNU+AFC and Head of the List submitted to Gecom for the 2020 General Elections. Any changes to the Parliamentary line-up would have to be authorized by him.
Granger was not nominated for any of the positions at the elections and did not attend the congress as he said that he had to leave the country for medical reasons. He delivered an address virtually.
Norton, who over the years has had several clashes with the PNCR hierarchy most notably when he was dismissed in 1998 by then party leader Desmond Hoyte from the post of General Secretary, said that he hopes “as soon as is practically possible” he and the party would meet to make decisions on the way forward.
He thanked voters for their confidence in him saying that it was for his work and character that he was elected to lead.
“I think the party comrades would have listened to my argument and voted for me and team. What that means in my opinion is that first of all, that I campaigned on a number of issues. I think they would have bought into those. I promised them that I would take on the activities of the PPP that are negative. For instance there is the appointment of Vishnu Persaud as Chief Election Officer when in fact he wasn’t the most qualified,” he said.
He continued “I promised we would fight for a new voter’s list and we will do that. I also said that the PPP/C’s attempt to change the law on the Natural Resources Fund is an attempt to create the condition for them to plunder the economy. I will therefore have to take that on. The PPP’s attempt to divide Region 4 (for electoral purposes), to me, is an attempt at gerrymandering so that they get an advantage. That also has to be taken on. The point is, I am elected by the membership of the party to protect the interest of the party and the wider society and I intend to do that.”
Combination
And with most of the candidates on his slate winning the positions vied for and beating out veteran members, Norton said that it was a combination of being on that slate and the candidates’ own work and respective characters.
“It is a combination of their ability and my name I won’t break it down to solely my name. All of them were professionally qualified and politically grounded. While being on my list contributed they have their own weight,” he said, noting that they were on the ground meeting with persons in their communities and other areas, long before the congress was announced.
Holder and Mursaline echoed Norton’s views with both adding that while they are young, they are not new to the party and have been members of the youth arm.
“I know the weight of the position I now hold and I do not at all take that for granted. I respect and am grateful for the confidence the members have in me. But do know I am not new as some people believe and I would say both yes and no that being with team Team Norton helped me to win,” Holder told Stabroek News last evening.
“I think being on Norton’s team would be a boost because of everything that has been happening and looking at the current state of the party and the country, and people wanting real and fresh leadership. The turnaround they see is that Norton is the person giving them that hope because he has a transformative vision. That is a plus [for me]. At the same time, I think persons are also conscious of these positions and are looking for persons who would represent them, who are there for them,” he added.
The 35-year-old engineer said that he is no stranger to leadership since he has been working with the St. Vincent and the Grenadines-headquartered Eastern Caribbean Group of Companies as a mechanical engineer since leaving the University of Guyana in his early 20s. By the age of 26, Holder said that he was a senior in the company and by age 29 was the Services Manager.
“If you look at Norton’s slate, everyone did not win…So I think it was a contributing factor but I have also been out in the fields working. I was a Youth Leader and Group Chairman for Region 2. I was also Central Executive Member for Region 2. So I have a lot of years with the party and in all of those I have been working,” he said.
