Five potential nominees will put themselves on the line as the People’s National Congress holds its special congress today at Congress Place, Sophia, to decide who will lead the charge for the party in the upcoming national elections.
The persons hoping to lead the main Opposition party’s challenge are Brigadier (Rtd) David Granger, Dr. Faith Harding, Basil Williams, James Bond and Carl Greenidge.
“My platform is based on a series of integrated measures aimed at lifting us all out of the nightmare we currently find ourselves in. These include: courageous and vibrant leadership; taking a critical but balanced stand in relation to Government policies and actions at all times; fighting discrimination and harassment; promoting transparent decision-making – appointment to jobs, award of contracts and scholarships; bringing an end to vindictiveness and pettiness in governance; championing fairness in decision-making and respect for the rights of all communities and groups; utilizing the skills of all our leaders and venerating those leadership skills and qualities that have made us proud in the past,” Greenidge wrote on his Facebook campaign page.
Further, he said that among his economic policy goals are encouraging entrepreneurship through reducing the cost and trials of doing business and promoting appropriate labour and workplace practices; the diversification of economic activities around agro-industry; light manufacturing and textiles, as well as mining.
Dr. Harding’s platform for change includes initiatives that would bring affordable electricity and energy to every household; significantly reduce crimes against women and incidents of domestic violence, sexual abuse and gender-based abuse; curb executive lawlessness and minimize the escalating levels of drug trade and trafficking that scar local communities; introduce much-needed drug intervention and drug rehabilitation programmes. The lone PNC female candidate placed her virtual manifesto on her Facebook campaign page.
She also intends to raise the existing minimum wage and create jobs through investments in agriculture, water resources, oil and metal mineral industries. She plans also to develop and launch training centres to enhance skills and competencies for teenagers and young adults.
Dr. Harding hopes to maximise the richness of the interior land for agriculture and further build the infrastructure and roadways leading to Brazil and Venezuela for more trade activities and sharing of resource development activities; improve education through top-level teacher training, parent education and research “that will make Guyanese schools more relevant and hospitable to children.”
She plans to increase health standards by implementing more community-oriented training on wellness and illness prevention methods, “as too many women are dying in childbirth and an alarming number of children are not surviving past the age of five.”
Dr. Harding promises to ensure that Amerindians are keenly aware of their rights to free education, access to healthcare, job creation activities, fair wages and feel included in the Guyanese society.
Attorney at Law Basil Williams says in his manifesto published in the press that he will invest in the Guyanese people to give them a “decent standard of living…and for farmers to get a fair return on their produce.” Williams also promises to reform the tax system to ensure a higher income tax threshold, a reduction in the VAT rate, income and company taxes. He will make education “our overarching priority and increase the share of the national budget spent on education.”
Williams promises to create over 100,000 new jobs and reduce the number of the unemployed, especially amongst the youth. He also promises to diversify Guyana’s economy with an emphasis on ICT, private sector development, micro, small and medium enterprise development, and enhanced export competitiveness.
On the agenda too will be the reform of the judiciary. He promises to be tough on crime and on the causes of crime and reduce by half the time it takes for persons charged to complete their trials.
The PNC’s youngest candidate is attorney at law James Bond, who is a protégé of the late Winston Murray. He writes on his Facebook campaign page: “My decision to run for the presidential candidacy of the PNCR is a realisation of his vision and was based solely on the fact that I see this as a new dispensation for the youth of Guyana where young people are part and parcel of the decision-making process of the country as they are the ones who have a greater investment in the future of the country, and should undoubtedly play a greater role than is currently allowed them by the powers that be.”