– Greenidge, Granger in smudge campaign
OPPOSITION Leader David Granger and his long-time rival, Carl Greenidge are reportedly in a ding-dong battle to grab the leadership position of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), but not without efforts to smudge each other’s character, a senior official of the party told Inews Guyana on Wednesday – a sign that is troubling for the already fragile party leadership, popular news website INews Guyana reported on Wednesday. The official speaking on condition of anonymity said the two have been spreading “dirty rumours” of each other over the past week, which is not going down lightly with the PNCR executive.
Incumbent Robert Corbin has signalled his intentions to hand over power of the PNCR at the party’s July 2012 Congress, leaving Greenidge and current opposition leader Granger as the main contenders  for the position of PNCR leader.
One senior PNCR official told Inews Guyana that the party’s executive is concerned about the way in which both Granger and Greenidge are conducting their campaigns, especially with the move by both sides to “tarnish” each other’s character.
The official confirmed that a number of crisis meetings were called by the party’s executive over the past weeks where both Granger and Greenidge were “cautioned” about the approach they have been taking in their bid to grab leadership power of the PNCR.
Both contenders are accusing each other of making “false claims and allegations during their campaign at party group meetings, with the intentions of “ridiculing each other”.
“This type of campaign is hurting this party and we have spoken to both Mr. Greenidge and Mr. Granger at the level of the executive, that they should desist from these practices which clearly are against the norms of the party’s policy, we don’t operate like that and this was made clear to them, but based on information they are still continuing,” the party official said.
Greenidge is also accusing Corbin of pushing Granger to take over the party reigns, a concern he had raised during the race for presidential candidacy last year.
The party official said this concern too was discussed at the ‘crisis’ meetings.
“Mr. Greenidge raised the concern of unlevel playing field, he said the leader (Robert Corbin) is pushing Mr. Granger to be his successor, that we have promised to investigate and we made it clear that if such is the case, Mr. Corbin should not do so,” the official revealed.
The official said such actions by two “mature and seasoned” members of the PNCR are hurting the already fragile political movement more.
The two had a close finish back in February 2011, when they contended for the presidential candidacy of the PNCR heading into the 2011 elections.
Granger won 279 votes and Economist, Carl Greenidge won 264 votes.
However, this result was declared after several recounts, when Greenidge and others who were in the race for the presidential candidacy raised concerns about the elections results.
The PNCR had been over the years rocked with major crises when it comes to internal elections.
The incumbent Corbin back in 2008 had disbanded several long standing party members including Vincent Alexander, after he challenged Corbin for the party leader post.
There was also a fall-out in 2010, when the late Winston Murray challenged Corbin for the party’s top spot, which Corbin eventually retained.
This had led, though, to stalwart and former parliamentarian Aubrey Norton being sidelined from the list of PNCR parliamentarians in the 10th parliament, following the 2011 national elections.