THE People’s National Congress  (PNC) has brought a new dimension to politics in Guyana, in that all their presidential candidates were required to make presentations nationally to their support groups about their presidential aspirations, and have the party members vote for the candidate whom they believed was best suited for the job. However, when the PNC held their Special Delegates Congress to have party members select the party’s presidential candidate, Brigadier David Granger was selected as the PNCR’s presidential candidate to lead the party to victory.

Among the candidates, were Carl Greenidge, Faith Harding, James Bond, and Basil Williams, who were also vying for the position of PNCR presidential candidate. David Granger was not selected by consensus. In fact, from all accounts, there was a tight race between himself and Carl Greenidge.
Of 666 votes, David Granger secured 279, Carl Greenidge 264, Basil Williams 88 votes, Dr Faith Harding 20, and James Bond 13 votes. Votes had to be recounted several times before finality was reached. Carl Greenidge’s supporters demanded this recount, since it was surprising and controversial that Granger, Robert Corbin’s personal favourite, had managed to secure a slim majority of the votes, surpassing Greenidge by only 15 votes.
Although all the presidential candidate hopefuls publicly expressed their support for Granger after this Special Delegates Congress, they have since not been seen by his side. Has David Granger’s presidential candidacy caused a split in the PNCR? There certainly appears to be factions in the party, as David Granger seems to be a man apart on the campaign trail. Even Robert Corbin is ‘MIA’ from Granger’s camp. This surely begs the question: has the PNCR abandoned Brigadier David Granger?