Retired Brigadier of the Guyana Defence Force, David Granger was returned unopposed as Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform on Sunday. Earlier in the day, his two rivals, Region 10 Chairman Sharma Solomon and former General Secretary Aubrey Norton both withdrew from the race for Leader while expressing their dissatisfaction with the electoral system of the party.
At a sunset press briefing at the end of the Congress on Sunday, PNC Leader David Granger said the congress was a successful one. He said that although some delegates from Region 10 raised some concerns, the majority of delegates were pleased with the outcome of the 18th Biennial Congress.
The PNC Leader said many of the concerns raised by Norton and Solomon about delegates and their appearance on the voting list, were addressed by the party. He said claims about irregularities in the voting and talk of rigging are false and despite accusations by some, evidence to back up their accusations is still to be provided.
“We don’t have any evidence. If there is evidence, we will investigate the matter but we can’t proceed on hearsay and we can’t proceed just on the basis of these allegations. Even long before this weekend, people were talking about rigging but these things are not true”, Granger said.
Asked about his efforts to reel in those party members who may feel disenchanted and are talking about moving on from the party, Granger said he has never stopped anyone from coming into the party and working along with the party. He said he remains open to having discussions with anyone about the development of the party. He told the media briefing that he is prepared to sit and have discussions with both Solomon and Norton about their concerns about the state of the party.
He noted that the party has been widening its reach across the nation and has been making inroads and will continue to focus on those efforts.
Granger said while division may never be a good thing for the party, he does not believe that it is a problem that will harm the party in any way, adding that even as some members of a particular region walked out of the Congress, many other members of that same region remained at the Congress and were part of the deliberations and the rest of the meeting.
Meanwhile, Attorney at Law Basil Williams was returned as Party Chairman while Volda Lawrence and Dr. George Norton were returned as Vice Chairpersons. Member of Parliament and businessman, Ronald Bulkan was returned as the Treasurer of the PNC Reform.
And Williams on Sunday announced that the party will launch a full investigation into a report that a gun was fired at the Congress. Initial reports suggest that the gun was fired by part of the security team working with the independent election officers.
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