…tells members not to be daunted by no-confidence motion

By Clifford Stanley

THE People’s National Congress Reform over the weekend convened regional conferences across the country with leaders rallying the base to get ready for the 2020 general elections.

Attorney General Basil Williams speaking at the Mahaica-Berbice conference held in Rosignol, West Coast Berbice, told members not to be daunted by the no-confidence motion tabled by the opposition against the government.

Regional Conferences were held in all 10 administrative regions over the weekend in keeping with the constitution of the political party. Essequibo Islands-West Demerara (Region Three) and Cuyuni-Mazaruni held their conferences on Saturday; Pomeroon-Supenaam (Region Two), Demerara-Mahaica (Region Four), Mahaica-Berbice (Region Five) were among those regions that held their conferences on Sunday.

In Demerara-Mahaica, several members were elected unopposed, namely chairman Genevieve Allen, Secretary Monica Thomas and Treasurer Ivelaw Henry. The vice-chairman post went to James Bond, while the Central Executive Committee (CEC) representative is Ernest Elliott and the committee members are Linda Gomes-Haley, Yvonne Fortune, and Roger Allicock.

Vinceroy Jordan won the chairmanship in Mahaica-Berbice; Charles Gibbons took the vice-chairman position; Carol Smith Joseph is the secretary, and Carol Nurse is the treasurer; Member of Parliament Jennifer Wade is the CEC Representative and Wayneright Henry, Frank Wilson and Chandram Basantram are the committee members.

Williams in his feature address at the conference dismissed the no-confidence motion. “We have been in office for a mere three years plus, and we will remind them of this.  It is unfair to judge us in a mere three years after we have had to deal with the mayhem of the past 23 years. An inordinate amount of this government’s time has been spent on cleaning up the mess we inherited from them,” Williams declared, to cheers from party members gathered at D’Edward Village, West Bank Berbice regional office.

He noted the dire state of the economy when the APNU+AFC government took over the government. “As a direct result of the failings of the PPP/C, we inherited the problem in the sugar industry. But we are committed to fixing the problems. We are paying the sugar workers their severance pay. We are delivering in a situation in which we inherited all of these problems,” he said.

Williams further said that several communities starved over the previous 23 years have now been touched by some form of development. “Those that didn’t have lights have gotten lights; those that were not getting potable water are now getting potable water; those that didn’t get roads have gotten roads; those whose drains were clogged and silted up have gotten cleaned drains and trenches,” he remarked

With Guyana now standing on the cusp of an oil-and-gas economy, the government will now be able to give all Guyanese the benefits of the new- found oil wealth in a manner of distribution in which every Guyanese regardless of race or religion would benefit, Williams said. He pointed out that this type of sharing will be guaranteed by the return of the coalition government to office in 2020.

Time to mobilise

In Cuyuni-Mazaruni, Minister of Public Affairs Dawn Hastings-Williams told that gathering that the time is now to start mobilising persons in the community as the party looks towards a 2020 general elections victory. “The time has come for us to have the establishment of youth groups and women’s groups within the region. As a political organization, we have to find ways and means of empowering youths and women to be a part of this mass movement. We should bound together to prepare for 2020, we need to charge ahead for 2020. And not only to establish these groups but to ensure that once these groups are established, that there are programmes that people would be able to connect to and want to be a part of this major political movement,” Hastings expressed. In Cuyuni-Mazaruni, Gordon Bradford was named chairman and Norma Thomas vice-chairman. The secretary is Elizabeth Moonsammy; the treasurer is Irene Sears-DaSilva; the CEC Representative is Shawn Hopkinson; and the committee members are Calech Young, Linden Jones, Juliet Rahaman and Mark Ambrose.