PNCR unable to effectively contest in 2011 without new elections – McAllister

Sep 19, 2009 News

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“…submit membership list to media for scrutiny”

Without another election to transparently choose the Central Executive Committee, Chairpersons and the Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), the party will not be able to effectively contest the upcoming General Elections.
This is according to ousted PNCR Parliamentarian James McAllister who had defected to Team (Vincent) Alexander at the previous party Congress and had also thrown his support along with the Dr Richard Van West Charles team in support of Winston Murray.
According to McAllister, the purpose of the recent report issued by the camp was aimed at illustrating the need for a new election, given that it has pointed to the massive irregularities that existed even before the elections.
He said that, “one would have thought that the party would have done the proper thing to do by now and annul the recently concluded elections.”
McAllister opined that the party could not effectively challenge the People’s Progressive Party Civic should it contest the elections with its current leadership because “there will be tremendous baggage” as it relates to the party’s credibility.
According to McAllister, team Van West Charles is adamant that there should be fresh elections within the party in order to stand any chance in 2011.
He noted that the information made available in the recently released report has been dispatched to Leader of the Party, Robert Corbin, Chief Whip Lance Carberry and the party’s General Secretary, Oscar Clarke, but there has been no response.
McAllister said that he would support having the media be given access to the Membership List to conduct its own verification investigation, with an understanding that analytical results would be published and not names.
He explained that there could be persons who did not sign but still would not want their names published as being affiliated with the party in such a public way, for fear of discrimination, given that they may be working in the public service.
McAllister posited that should the party not find favour with the media conducting an investigation, then there should be a bi-partisan team that enjoys the confidence of both sides of the divide to conduct such a verification probe.
According to the post-PNCR biennial congress report documenting the preparations, actual congress and results of the elections, Winston Murray who had challenged the incumbent leader, Robert Corbin, would have won had it not been for massive irregularities such as multiple voting.
The report was prepared by the team assembled by Dr Richard Van West Charles and stated that
the adjusted votes for Corbin and Murray are 339 and 358 votes respectively. “This is a clear indication that the irregularities were sufficient to have affected the results of the elections.”
According to the report, of the total votes Corbin received, 150 were as a result of impersonation, 140 as a result of multiple voting and another 15 as a result of disenfranchisement
The report also indicated that the election process in the PNCR commences with membership registration and ends with the declaration of the results at the Congress, and the review of the entire process reveals a conspiracy to undermine democracy in the Party.
It was pointed out that the distribution of membership application forms is organised so that the status quo can determine how many members can exist in any group, district or region.
“Forms are stamped and numbered and groups are not allowed to photocopy them. Only forms collected from Congress Place are deemed valid for the purpose of application. It was found that this mechanism was used to discriminate against the Guyana Youth and Student Movement (GYSM), Region No. 4, Region No. 10 and various groups across the country.”
It was pointed out that a major discrepancy was the falsification of membership forms, and that sufficient evidence of serious padding of the membership register was presented, but those implicated in membership falsification were afforded the opportunity to undermine the findings. The report stated that information was sent to those implicated in the fraud to allow them the opportunity to cover their tracks.
As such, Team Van West Charles is adamant that the result of the elections at the 16th Biennial Congress is not a reflection of the will of the Party’s membership, nor is it reflective of the will of the delegates who turned up.
Meanwhile, this newspaper is in possession of a delegate card that allowed an individual who was neither on the list nor was the person’s name on the card to gain entry into the Congress elections.
A point to note is that only delegates (persons with delegate cards) were allowed to vote at the elections.
When the individual turned up to the congress registration desk to uplift a delegate card the person was found not to be on the list.
A phone call was subsequently made and a senior party member turned up at the desk and managed to secure a card for that individual who was then escorted to the elections.

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