Peoples National Congress Reform. Press Statement. 2014.07.

30

_____________

The PNCR 18
th
Biennial Delegates Congress was conducted in a free, fair
and transparent manner

Accredited Delegates (794) and Observers came to the 18th Biennial Delegates
Congress from all ten Party Regions in Guyana as well as from the North American
and the UK Groups to deliberate on the serious issues that are facing the nation.

It was evident, from the orchestrated media campaign that was being conducted, that
the Regional Democratic Council Chairman of Region Ten and some of his support
group were intent on causing the maximum disruption to the 18
th
Biennial Delegates
Congress.

During the Opening Ceremony on Friday 25 July 2014 - Day One of the Congress it
was evident that a handful of Party members had convinced a segment of the Region
No. 10 community, including non-members, to travel to Georgetown to disrupt what
was an otherwise orderly and successful opening ceremony. This resulted in several
calculated and well-planned acts of disorder. This group was well-organised, well-
financed and dressed in a uniform manner and abused the spirit of our Party and
the sanctity of our Congress.

The majority of the persons who were transported from Linden on Friday, Saturday
and Sunday were not Delegates or Observers to the Congress. They were brought to
Congress Place to create disorder.

The 18
th
Biennial Delegates Congress and the elections for party officers were
conducted in accordance with the Party Constitution, in an open and transparent
manner. All of the posts were freely and fairly contested with full participation of
the Delegates present.

The Returning Officer and his team received no complaints or criticisms.

It is apposite to note that there were no problems with any another Party Region at
this the 18
th
Biennial Delegates Congress.

Preparatory Arrangements For the Holding of The Party Congress
As is normal for the holding of a Biennial Congress, the Party General Secretary sent
out two (2) Congress Circulars:
The First Congress Circular, dated 30 May 2014, from the Party General
Secretary advised:
At thi s ti me member shi p r enewal should be the number one pr ior i ty of
the var i ous Par ty Gr oups especi ally si nce the 2011/ 2012 Par ty year
came to an end on 31 May 2012.For the pur pose of Delegate status at the
1

upcomi ng 18
th
Bi enni al Congr ess only those member s who sati sfy the
r equi r ement of bei ng fi nanci al member s for the year s 2012/ 2013 and
2013/ 2014would be eli gi ble to be nomi nated as Delegates to r epr esent
thei r gr oups at the 18
th
Bi enni al Congr ess.
New member s 2014/ 2015 wi ll not quali fy for delegate status but may be
selected as obser ver s to Congr ess.

The Second Congress Circular, dated 5 July 2014, advised Groups of the
Constitutional requirements for the determination of eligibility of Party members for
accreditation as Delegates or Observers and the guidelines for determining the
number of Delegates which a Group was entitled to have accredited. It also provided
each Party Group with the list of their current Members as at 16 June 2014 who were
eligible to be nominated as Delegates or Observers and indicated Automatic
Delegates in bold print.
In addition, the Circular had appended the forms needed to be completed by each
Party Group and stated:
Par ty Adult gr oups and GYSM gr oups ar e her eby r equested to convene
a speci al meeti ng for the pur pose of conducti ng the busi ness of
i denti fyi ng Delegates and Obser ver s as well as thei r nomi nees for Par ty
Offi cer s and member s of the centr al executi ve commi ttee.

Delegates must pr esent ei ther thei r photogr aphi c Member shi p Card or
thei r Nati onal I D Car d as means of i denti fi cati on.

All Groups were required to submit the required information to the General
Secretary on or before 12 July 2014.

Submissions For The Accreditation of Delegates and Observers for
Region Ten
1. On Saturday 12 July 2014, Mr Sharma Solomon submitted the Region Ten list
of Groups and nominations for accreditation as Delegates.
The Group Lists submitted to each of the Groups in Region Ten contained persons in
each Group who were qualified to be either Delegates or Observers. However, the
Group Lists submitted by Mr Solomon contained persons who were not qualified to
be Delegates who were being nominated as Delegates. Many of these persons were
qualified to be Observers but not Delegates.

2. On Monday 14 July 2014, the General Secretary wrote to each of the Region
Ten Groups pointing out that, in many instances, persons who were qualified to be
Delegates were not nominated. Instead many of the names submitted only qualified
to be Observers.

3. On Monday 21 July 2014, the General Secretary received the corrected Group
lists but discovered that there was still need for corrections, since, in many instances,
the Group Lists submitted did not contain enough persons who were qualified to be
Delegates to fill the quota of Delegates to which they were entitled.

4. On Thursday 24 July 2014, Mr Sharma Solomon was notified by email what
corrections were needed.

2

5. On Friday 25 July 2014, Mr Sharma Solomon submitted another list by email.
This was found to still contain some of the same deficiencies that he was previously
notified that needed to be corrected. In addition, Mr Sharma included persons who
he claimed to be Automatic Delegates but who were not qualified to be Automatic
Delegates.

6. On Saturday 26 July 2014, at a meeting of the Accreditation Committee, Mr
Solomon was again informed of the corrections that needed to be made to the Lists
he had submitted. No further information was received from Mr Solomon.

The Withdrawal of Messrs Norton and Solomon prior to the Holding of
Elections

Every effort was made to facilitate the resolution of the concerns expressed by both
Mr. Solomon and Mr. Norton.

It should be evident that reports that the Party Secretariat was deliberately working
to disenfranchise Delegates from Region No. 10 were all false. The Party General
Secretary continued to work with the representatives of Region Ten to ensure that
every query raised was answered.

The Party delayed the start of the Congress Elections in order to hold an
emergency meeting to resolve the issues which were raised by Mr. Norton and Mr.
Solomon. After solutions were agreed, Mr Solomon refused to collect his Delegate
Card from the registration desk.

It was becoming increasingly clear that Mr. Norton and Mr. Solomon had no interest
in seeking a resolution to the issues they had raised. Instead, they were obviously
intent on embarrassing the PNCR.

The objective appeared to be to cause maximum disruption of the Elections process.
Persons who were neither Delegates nor Observers were encouraged to crash the
barriers to gain entry into the auditorium.

When Mr. Norton and Mr. Solomon announced their withdrawal from Congress,
approximately 30 Delegates walked out. However, the remaining Delegates
remained and participated in the elections. Only a very small segment of the Region
Ten delegation behaved inappropriately.

Peoples National Congress Reform
Congress Place
Sophia
30 July 2014.






3