— Shurwayne Holder is new Chairman

AFTER serving the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R) for 49 years, Aubrey Norton has finally managed to climb his way to the head seat of the long-standing political party, replacing former President and party leader David Granger.

Norton’s elevation to leader of the PNC/R has been viewed with concerns from some quarters in the party and society who see him as someone who is unable to win cross-over support due to his pass actions as the party’s grassroots organiser. The party he now leads is notorious for rigging elections and violent confrontations when it illegitimately occupied the seat of power and during its years in opposition before it came under the umbrella of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), which it played an instrumental role in forming. Many public commentators have posited the view the APNU was a cloak to hide the PNC form its sordid pass.

Norton, who joined the youth arm of the then PNC at the age of 15 in 1972, racked up some 967 of the total 1, 282 votes during the party’s 21st Biennial Congress held on Saturday at Congress, Place, Sophia, Greater Georgetown. Norton essentially outperformed his two competitors by a landslide. Dr Van-West Charles secured 64 votes, while Leader of the Opposition Joseph Harmon got 245 votes.

The official results were announced on Sunday afternoon by the party’s Chief Election Officer, Vincent Alexander, who maintained that the internal elections were free, fair and transparent.

In an invited comment, Norton said that once the party’s new leadership is properly in place, he intends to focus heavily on strengthening the functions of the party’s secretariat, as well as executing training and capacity-building initiatives for party members in an effort to ensure that the party is more economically independent. “We have a lot to do…organise ourselves to place ourselves in a position where we can hold the PPP [People’s Progressive Party/Civic government] accountable,” Norton said.

Despite his years of service to the PNC/R, Norton was overlooked several times in recent years for a seat in the National Assembly; first, after the General and Regional Elections in 2011, then in 2013 when Richard Allen resigned from the House, and again in 2014, when a replacement was being sought to fill the chair of the late Deborah Backer.

At that time, concerns that Norton was being sidelined by the Granger-led PNC/R had hit the political arena; however, in 2014, Granger denied that this was the case. But, even so, Norton was still overlooked again in 2015 when the PNC/R-led A Partnership for National Unity merged with the Alliance For Change and won the elections.

Norton, a former parliamentarian himself, had always been vocal about the need for Members of Parliament to do more work, and for the opposition to always be prepared to fulfil its role as a government in waiting, having clear policies and programmes for every sector.

Now that Norton is head of the PNC/R, many are wondering whether he could possibly replace Harmon as Leader of the Opposition, since the PNC/R does have the majority membership of the APNU, which also holds the majority membership in the APNU+AFC Coalition.

As it is, David Granger is leader of the APNU, while Harmon holds the position of General-Secretary. This means that again, Granger has the final say as to who sits in Parliament.
Speaking on a radio programme earlier in the month, Harmon, an attorney-at-law, had said that even if he loses the race for leadership of the PNC/R, he cannot be removed as Leader of the Opposition.

“I am the current Leader of the Opposition in Guyana. And that there is some rumour going around that if somebody else wins, they could remove me. But I just want to make clear that the constitution is very clear about that. That the Leader of the Opposition could only be removed at the next elections of the country…He can’t be removed any other way,” Harmon said.

COULD BE REMOVED
The Guyana Chronicle had previously reported that in accordance with Article 184 of Guyana’s constitution, there are a number of ways in which a member can be removed from the National Assembly, including a no-confidence provision for removing the Leader of the Opposition.

The provision, as reported previously, reads: “Where one-third of the non-governmental members of the Assembly represent to the Speaker that the Leader of the Opposition no longer enjoys their confidence, the Speaker shall call a meeting of all the non-governmental members at which it shall be decided whether the Leader of the Opposition shall be removed from office.”
The provision continues: “The removal shall be effected by the votes of a majority of all the non-governmental members.”

This means that if Norton has the support of the majority members of the parliamentary opposition, he can ascend to the Opposition Leader’s chair. Asked specifically whether this is a course of action he intends to pursue, Norton responded, “As leader of the PNC, whatever functions has to be performed generally, I will perform them.”

Outside on the internal politics, Norton said that he would be promoting a campaign for a new national voters’ list, as well as the “action” to challenge the recent appointment of Vishnu Persaud as Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

Nonetheless, also moving up in the ranks of the PNC/R is Member of Parliament Shurwayne Holder, who, with 407 votes, will soon be declared Chairman of the party.
Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle on Sunday evening, Holder said that he is happy to have the confidence of his party, and that his first course of action would be to unite the membership of the party.

Meanwhile, when the official declaration of winners is made today, Faaiz Mursaline is expected to be named Treasurer, while Elizabeth Williams-Niles will be named first Vice-Chairperson. As at Sunday evening, government Chief Whip Christopher Jones and his colleague Member of Parliament Vinceroy Jordan were tied for the position of second Vice-Chairman; a final decision is expected to be made today.

At that time also, Chief Election Officer Alexander said that the party was not yet prepared to announce the 15 Central Executive members of the party. “Even as we speak, we are still finalising the count in that regard,” Alexander said.

As it relates to voter turnout, Alexander indicated that there was a 100 per cent turnout in Mahdia, Region Nine, followed by voting in North America, which was just a couple points short of a perfect turnout.