– Corbin refuses to comment
A CHALLENGER for the top post in the main opposition People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) has raised questions about the transparency and fairness of the electoral system to be used at the party’s August 21-22 biennial congress.

Dr. Richard Van West-Charles said he wrote party leader Robert Corbin raising questions about the verification process for the conduct of the elections and his queries have not been addressed.

Van West-Charles, a son-in-law of the late President and founder-leader of the PNCR, Forbes Burnham, is among five persons bidding to oust Corbin as party leader at the congress.

Others nominated for the post are Dr. Aubrey Armstrong, Winston Murray, Aubrey Norton and Basil Williams.

Party General Secretary Oscar Clarke said at a press conference last week that Corbin had received the most nominations (162) followed by West-Charles with (21).

In a letter to Corbin released to the media, Van West-Charles said he recommended 15 points to improve the party’s electoral process and had not received any written communication on whether these were being taken into consideration.

He said he was informed that access to the membership register has been suspended on the instruction of the Central Executive Committee and charged that this has “clearly undermined the efforts of candidates to have a thorough verification and now calls into question the intent and your commitment to a transparent process.”

“This action taken by the Central Executive is indeed puzzling since the access to the register, though inadequate, represents part of the verification process”, he argued.

Van West-Charles told Corbin that candidates must be able to ascertain that all members throughout Guyana who are involved in the elections during the congress have been verified.

“This can only be achieved when all candidates have equal access to the same information and with the same time being allotted for the review”, he said.

He added: “As comrades whose responsibility for fair and just processes are upheld in the name of the membership of our party between congresses, I request that you consider that the approach which will be taken is one which will uphold our democratic principles and values. I expect that these simple but important elements of the verification process will be embraced and introduced with alacrity.”

Corbin, when contacted yesterday, refused to make a personal comment to the Chronicle in response to the letter by Charles.

Corbin, instead, informed the Chronicle that the Party’s press statement on August 7, which pre-empts Charles’ letter, addressed the issues raised by the latter and he therefore sees no need to make a personal comment.

From this one can justifiably deduce that the Party’s position, as stated in the release, is Mr. Corbin’s personal position.

The PNC/R statement last week said that with regard to the verification of membership, a list of financial members, as of May 31, 2009, was circulated by the General Secretary.

It said these lists were to be on display from July 19 to August 9 at the meeting places of the group so that they could be inspected by members who could raise any queries or objections with the party group officers.

“All such queries and objections should have been sent to the party secretariat and to the accreditation committee for investigation and appropriate action as required”, it said.

The PNCR said that in addition, the list of members for each party group was made available for inspection by members of the Central Executive Committee of the party, regional party officers and persons who have been nominated as candidates for the elections at its Congress Place headquarters.

It added that all party groups have submitted their list of delegates for the congress based on their qualified membership.

It said these measures were instituted to remove the basis of previous claims of weaknesses in the system and to ensure greater transparency in the party processes.

“Similar procedures are being implemented for the election process, which will include the involvement of invited observers”, it said.

Corbin has been dogged by leadership in-fighting and charges of rigging party elections with Norton claiming he was last month manoeuvred out of the post as Chairman of the Georgetown district, a charge Corbin has denied.

Corbin faces leadership challenges at the PNC Congress, primarily from Charles.

However, Chronicle interviewed several members of the public – both PNC supporters and non-supporters, and the general consensus is that Charles has been living in the rarified and privileged North American countries and will find it difficult to relate to Guyanese issues affecting the common man, whereby Corbin has been the man in the trenches whom has stood by the Party through all its good times and its problem-prone times.

Added to that, he was specially chosen as the fittest person to lead the Party by the late President Hoyte, who was himself chosen by Burnham over all the contenders, including Charles.

It therefore stands to reason, from these public responses, that if Charles is banking on his relationship with the late President Burnham to wrest victory from Corbin then he is sadly miscalculating his chances, because they are based on a false premise.

The Biennial Delegates Congress is the highest decision making forum of the party and the theme is “People’s Victory Through Local Democracy.”

It said more than 1800 delegates and observers from 217 party groups, nine overseas groups and 27 youth groups are expected to participate.