— analysts
RETIRED Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Brigadier David Granger, who is bidding to be the presidential candidate at this year’s general elections for the main opposition People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), is in tandem with party leader Robert Corbin’s plans, well-placed sources said.
A senior PNCR insider said Corbin, who led the PNCR to another defeat in the 2006 elections, opted out of being the presidential candidate this year because he does not want to be blamed for another electoral defeat. “He’s bent on being PNCR leader and Granger has made it clear that he’s no threat to Corbin’s ambition”, the insider said.
The source said Granger has publicly declared that he does not want to be PNCR leader, recalling that the former National Security Adviser to the late President Desmond Hoyte, made this point in an interview with the Stabroek News newspaper in September last year.
Granger told the Stabroek News: “I will be looking to unite the party…Mr Corbin is going to remain leader.”
The PNCR has for years been riven by intense leadership struggles but Corbin has managed to stave off all challengers since he assumed the post after the death of former President and party leader Desmond Hoyte in 2002.
The PNCR, however, remains splintered in several camps and Granger said he has been asked by a “significant part of the party’s membership” to accept the presidential nomination as they feel no other “candidate can unite the party.”
Analysts said three of the four other nominees shortlisted by the PNCR hierarchy are senior party members who see themselves as potential PNCR leaders and Corbin will not be too comfortable with them.
One analyst said that former Finance Minister Carl Greenidge is the only one of the lot who does not have his eyes on the party’s top post. The other nominees for presidential candidate are young lawyer James Bond and old stagers Dr. Faith Harding and lawyer Basil Williams.
The PNCR is to pick its presidential candidate later and the insiders said Corbin is firmly behind Granger as first choice.
The party leader will also be the Opposition Leader should the PNCR lose the elections again this year and this is what Corbin wants to clinch to ensure he does not fade into political oblivion, the analyst said.
With this in mind, Corbin is trying to stay in the limelight by creating issues like accusing President Bharrat Jagdeo of trying to secure a third term and portraying himself as the man championing the cause of the PNCR rank and file.
President Jagdeo, who signed the term limit provision into law, has repeatedly said that neither he nor his administration is interested in a third term.
An observer said this latest ruse is all part of Corbin’s game plan of staying in the public eye and in the PNCR leadership post and Granger best suits his purpose.
“Once the elections are over, Granger goes back to his writing and historical research and Corbin sits nice and comfortable in the party leadership chair”, the observer said.
He noted that the PNCR, which was in power through rigged elections for almost 30 years, has lost all elections since October 1992, when free and fair elections were restored in Guyana. Elections have been held in 1997, 2001 and 2006.
“Chances are that the PNCR will remain the main opposition party at this year’s elections and Corbin, who has been a political creature all his life, wants to remain at the helm of his party. That’s what all these political games boil down to. Expect more of them as the elections draw near”, he offered.