Rebranding cannot redeem the PNCR

Jan 05, 2023 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – For the PNCR to regain political credibility, it first has to implode. As bizarre as it may sound, it is best that the present ‘contradictions’ evident within the party be encouraged in order to birth a new order.

The APNU+AFC commands some 31 seats in the country’s National Assembly, as compared with 33 for the ruling PPPC government and one to the Joinder party. The PPPC therefore holds mere one-seat advantage over the opposition Coalition. As such, the Opposition represents a significant section of the electorate. However, the shenanigans engaged in by the Opposition and its dubious claim narrative that the 2020 elections were rigged, has led to a crisis of credibility and legitimacy. The PNCR which had struggled to rebrand itself under David Granger was exposed during the last elections. The whole world now knows that this party attempted to benefit from rigged elections. It is a stain which the PNCR will struggle to overcome and which it cannot overcome by mere rebranding, as it has done so successfully since 1985.

Rebranding cannot redeem the PNCR. The party has a history of electoral malpractices, and 2020 merely confirmed what many felt: that the PNCR cannot be trusted to be compliant with democratic norms. Its own supporters were embarrassed by what the party attempted with the 2020 elections. And after the new government was sworn in, a series of scandals were revealed which showed that while in office many of the top operatives in the PNCR were engaged in practices which were an embarrassment to the party and its supporters.

The PNCR however is a mass-based party. Its supporters cannot be expected to simply jump ship or to be so apathetic as to outdo what happened in 2006 when the PNCR only managed to scrape together 34% of the total votes cast, its poorest showing in four elections over a period of 14 years. The best hope for the PNCR would be for it to implode. The internal contradictions within the party could generate conditions for the emergence of not only a new leadership – one divorced from the post 2020 narrative – and a new party one that may with time be able to enjoy credibility.

At present, the PNCR is wracked by internal divisions. This has been admitted to by the leadership. And accusations of corruption and discrimination have also been leveled. In his address to the PNCR Congress before he demitted the leadership of the party, David Granger warned against factionalism. The traditional approach of the PNCR to criticisms about the affairs of the party has been to say that this is internal to the party and it will be handled internally. The PNCR has often responded to internal criticisms by saying that these are matters for the party to address. But the PNCR is not simply a party of its members. It draws its support – at least judging from the last elections – from almost half of the electorate. In the 2020 elections, the Coalition secured 217,920 votes. What happens within the PNCR is therefore of public interest since it is this party which almost half of the electorate relies upon to hold the PPPC’s feet to account.

The internal affairs of the party is therefore of interest to just simply its members but to the entirety of the 217,920 persons that voted for the APNU+AFC. Concerns about what is happening within the party cannot be dismissed by the explanation that it an internal matter. The present contradictions within the PNCR should be encouraged. It will lead to change, and that change may be helpful to the party which has suffered a severe setback as result of the attempt to rig the 2020 elections.

Obviously, there will be forces, within the party, which would want the status quo to be maintained. But the maintenance of the status quo is recipe for the further loss of credibility and legitimacy. As such, those supporters and members desirous to seeing the PNCR restored to credibility should encourage a debate both within and outside of the party about the leadership and the direction in which the party is going.

The internal affairs of the PNCR should be democratized so that members have a greater say and control over what happens within the party. It should also be made more transparent so that issues such as those raised recently are not at risk of being swept under the carpet.

But for these changes to made manifest, the internal contradictions will have to come a head. An implosion within the party will be good so long as its serves the interest of internal democracy and greater transparency because the alternative to this will be a party that is permanently discredited and disgraced.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)