The plan to rig the PNC congress is unfolding

Jul 13, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – On Friday, I argued that society should continue to engage African Guyanese about their political leadership. It is becoming overbearing in the cruel ways that the PNC and their surrogates in the trade union movement, academia and civil society are deceiving African people in this country.
Because of Covid-19, the congress will be physically reduced in numbers. What naked and ugly manipulation this is. Since when because of Covid-19, the PNC is concern about large numbers at any event?
Since the Covid-19 restrictions began in April 2020, the PNC as a party and several of its leaders as government ministers have staged several picketing exercises in which the leaders have addressed PNC supporters. Protestors were transported to the courts to protest during the early stages of the rigging of the national elections openly violating Covid-19 restrictions.
A large crowd gathered at State House where President Granger spoke to them. He didn’t wear a mask and neither did they. In September last year, Granger and Harmon went to Region Five in the midst of the murder of the two Henry cousins and spoke to a large number of PNC followers.
Then those followers in their thousands cut off Region Five from the rest of the country. They beat and robbed Indian folks. Cars and buildings were burned. Countless videos are available to show that not one rioter wore a mask. Days after, Volda Lawrence went up to Region Five to persuade PNC supporters not to riot and create mayhem. There was no observance of Covid-19 restrictions.
The PNC has now found it convenient to reshape its upcoming congress later this year because of the pandemic. Three aspects have been decided on so far. There will not be a large official opening ceremony where diplomats, guests and the media will be invited. The number of days the congress will last has been shortened. But here is the most important departure – the amount of delegates will be drastically curtailed. Here is where the rigging will take place.
Important to note is that Mr. Granger has signalled his intention to seek re-election. Secondly, Mr. Harmon will be contesting the post of Chairmanship. You don’t need a doctorate in political studies to know that the reduction in delegates will facilitate a victory for both men.
What is going to happen is that, those delegates will be carefully selected. Here is where Volda Lawrence’s career as a PNC stalwart will be over. She will simply win a seat to the central committee. She will be ousted as chairman and Granger as leader will continue to ostracise her.
This country and its diaspora do not know the dislike that is boiling between Granger and Lawrence. Depending on how you see the nature of the human being, you will make your preference. Lawrence was relentless in her condemnation of Granger’s indecisiveness during the election rigging from March to July last year. And completely lost her temper when he conceded to Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.
Cathy Hughes for the AFC and Volda Lawrence manned the fortress. Lawrence’s denunciation of Granger was emotional and verbally tempestuous during the end part of the election rigging. The break was now complete. Granger subsequently used his position as Leader of the List to exclude her from parliament.
Even before her parliamentary exclusion, there were strong disagreements between Lawrence and Granger over the award of seats to the AFC. A majority of PNC leaders argued that the Cummingsburg Accord was based on state power sharing, and did not envisage an environment of opposition status for APNU+AFC. They contended that the nine seat-allocations was excessive. It was Raphael Trotman who persuaded Granger to give the AFC the nine seats. The AFC leaders went to parliament but not Lawrence.
The PNC congress will be rigged. It has never happened in the history of party politics where a leader would allow himself to be toppled by his archenemy in his own party. The brutal reality is that, David Granger would face incredible humiliation and unbelievable loss of credibility if Lawrence was to beat him in the voting. In a free process, she will.
Can the PNC survive this immanent implosion? It will, but its fragility will become deeper and more extensive. First, Lawrence will lose and there will exist in the PNC a solid group of her supporters that will continue to reject Granger and Harmon. Secondly, financial support for the PNC will dwindle because generous donors will see an increasing weakness in the party. Thirdly, the continuing guerrilla warfare will alienate large numbers of citizens. The PNC is facing perhaps a permanent crisis.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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