The race for Chairman of the People’s National Congress is heating up with the former Chairman of Region 10, Sharma Solomon accepting the nomination for the position at the upcoming elections.
Solomon who has been credited with expanding the membership and adding new vigor to the People’s National Congress in Region 10 intends to campaign on that record.
“I don’t run against people, I run on my own record. We have the best deck of cards”, Solomon told News Source this afternoon as he explained that while he has accepted the nomination for Chairman of the party, he has decided to decline the nomination for party leader.
Instead, he has endorsed longtime PNC Member, Dr. Richard Van West-Charles for that position.
On his own campaign to be Chairman of the party, the 41-year-old Solomon said he has been focusing his efforts on the position of Chairman.
“What I stand on is the experience of working in Region 10 and our numbers. Our numbers of ensuring increased numbers of party members between 2006 and 2011, we moved those numbers to 1500 from just about 300 and party groups, we have brought them back to the extent where they are active and structured along boundary lines and we have worked with the YSM and the NCW to ensure that they are very active, we established cooperatives, and we established the sort of institutions that the party felt reliant on to help with the issues in the Region, including help the Region when we took on the PPP in the 2021 struggle…we are running on our experience”, Solomon said.
Mr. Solomon accepted the nomination for Leader of the PNC in 2014 but pulled out of the elections at the last minute amid concerns about the electoral process at that time.
He was Regional Chairman during the 2014 party elections. Although he was sidelined by the party’s executive in the year that followed, he remained involved in the party’s activities and campaigned for the party in all of the national and local elections that followed.
Solomon believes that at this stage, it is important to unify the PNC to move forward. He said while he is running for the position of Party Chairman, his support for Party Leader has been thrown firmly behind Dr. Richard Van West Charles.
“What we bring to the party with regards to our support of what a Central Executive Committee should be doing in conjunction with Leader, Chairman, Vice Chairman and CEC members is in itself tangible of what we can do to build the party back…I still believe in our early endorsement of Dr. Richard Van West Charles and when you put the cards on the table for the position of Leader, he comes out hands down above everyone else”, Solomon insisted.
Focusing on national politics, Solomon said he believes the People’s National Congress remains the best party to lead Guyana in the right direction, whether by itself or as part of the coalition.
“The People’s National Congress over the past 64 years has demonstrated to the people of Guyana, not only that we have brought and shepherded the nation to the point of Independence and through its Republic status, we have done so many things and the party is embedded in the consciousness of the Guyanese society. What we see today is a People’s Progressive Party (government) that is completely isolated in terms of its outlook of society and even in the wider context of the world, let’s not forget they have been labeled as an installed regime, we had overseas representatives of government who have identified them as a very divisive government and locally those who were identified as Guardians of Democracy, today they have started to turn their back son the PPP. The PPP has returned Guyana to one of the most corrupt places in the region”, he said.
Mr. Solomon said he is confident of performing well in the upcoming elections and will continue to focus on building the party and supporting its efforts to better the lives of the people of Guyana.
Solomon is one of 16 nominees for the position of PNC Chairman. Over the years, he has been seen by political observers as a future Presidential Candidate for the party and the coalition.
The incumbent Chairman of the PNC, Volda Lawrence has told her supporters that she will not be contesting the elections at this time.
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