–Fmr. PNC/R Chairman says; accuses Norton of making unilateral party decisions

FORMER Chairman of the People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R), Shurwayne Holder, who also served as a parliamentarian from 2020-2025, has accused party leader Aubrey Norton of excluding the Central Executive Committee (CEC) and unilaterally handpicking the incoming parliamentary lineup.
Holder’s comments directly contradict those of Norton, who, on Friday last, told a news conference that the party decided on the parliamentary lineup.
“The party chose the persons and, in the party, we give clear rationale,” Norton told reporters, adding: “We discussed with the people in the party. There’s a clear rationale for what was done and it’s the party’s decision and we are happy that we made the decisions we made.”
On reading Norton’s comments, Holder told the Sunday Chronicle that while he has no issue with the new parliamentary slate, he is concerned about Norton acting on his own while telling the general public otherwise.
Holder completely disagreed with Norton’s comments and contended that it has become “a norm” for Norton to unilaterally make party decisions, and it is among the reasons he tendered his resignation in September.
The former parliamentarian explained: “The core leadership of the party, as far as I know, was not involved in the decision-making process.”
According to Holder, in his capacity as chairman, he wrote to Norton on September 6 after learning that Norton was making decisions regarding the selection for parliament, explaining that he should not make such decisions in isolation.
“As far as I know, there was no decision. At least there was no CC [central committee], there was no central exec, because central exec meetings are called by the party chairman in consultation with the general secretary, who is his [Norton] rep,” Holder related.
The former party chairman alleged that some of the suggestions that were floated by other members of the executive to Norton were completely ignored.
According to Holder, one of the names recommended to Norton for Parliament was veteran executive member, Mervyn Williams; when the new parliamentary slate was announced and Williams was not on it, he resigned from the party in September.
“I thought that he should have been selected because he’s about the only person that can go deep into indigenous issues. He has lots of knowledge of indigenous matters, and I know he can also carry several other areas. And my thought process to it was that you only have 12 seats, and therefore you had to put persons that had the ability to cover multiple areas, because you don’t have 31 seats or 32 seats to cover the various ministries,” Holder said, explaining that it would have been a wise choice to “at least” consider persons who had vast knowledge to handle several ministries.
However, Norton “totally ignored” the note and Holder said, “as far as I know, he made the decision on his own.”
According to Holder, “I am fully aware that the CEC was briefed of his rationale after the fact, only a few weeks ago, maybe about two weeks ago, you had the first CEC, and they were told about the decision and why, rather than being a part of that decision. How it’s normally done, is that your core group discuss, you might have a draft and you carry it to CEC for ratification, given your explanations, your rationale. That was not done.”
Holder was puzzled as to why Norton would brand his act as a party decision, given that even the procedural requirements were bypassed.
While the party constitution permits the leader to make decisions, Holder contended that no executive member would accept the unilateral selection of parliamentarians and allow for someone to pen it as a “party decision.”
“At least I was party chairman. I was not at any meeting where that was discussed, I was not invited to any meeting where that was discussed, and I was fully aware that he was making those decisions on his own. I beg to differ with what he said,” Holder said.
Since he acceded to the Leader of the PNC/R and APNU in 2020, Norton has come in for severe criticism for his leadership style, which resulted in several heavyweights resigning from the party.
And for the first time in recent history, the PNC/R is no longer the main opposition party in the country, as it suffered a blistering defeat at the September polls, only gaining 12 seats in the National Assembly. The PNC/R has now been relegated to a weak third force as the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party is likely to take on the role as the Leader of the Opposition.