Attorney-at-law Basil Williams and former PNC general secretary Aubrey Norton are among the five new faces on the PNC/R central executive committee. The others are Artie Ricknauth, Vaulda Lawrence, and the party’s parliamentary chief whip, Lance Carberry. Among those who lost their places are on the committee are Andy Gouveia, Yvonne Harewood-Benn, Cammie Ramsaroop, Jean Persico and Brentnol Archer. Persico and Archer did not seek re-election.
The other members who were elected at the party’s 13th Biennial Congress are Debbie Backer, Raphael Trotman, Oscar Clarke, James McAllister, Deryck Bernard, Amna Ally, Alan Munroe, Ivor Allen, Dr Faith Harding, and Dr Dalgleish Joseph. The other members of the committee are Leader, Desmond Hoyte; Chairman, Robert Corbin and Vice-Chairman, Vincent Alexander as well as Chairman of the National Congress of Women, Cheryl Sampson and Chairman of the Guyana Youth and Students Movement, Lurlene Nestor, the first female in the history of the youth arm of the party to be elected to this position.
Hoyte, Corbin and Alexander were all elected earlier in the evening as were Sampson and Nestor, when their organisations held their congresses on Sunday.
The election of the party officers and the members of the central executive committee was the highlight of the closing session of the congress. The counting of the ballots for the members of the central executive committee went late into the night, a not uncommon feature of PNC congresses.
Because of the time taken with the elections, the congress was unable to deal with a number of other important matters such as the recommendations from the workshops on the presentation by Hoyte and the general secretary’s Report.
As a result, the newly constituted central executive committee was authorised to deal expeditiously with the more important recommendations and to report to the next meeting of the party’s General Council on the action it has taken.
A casualty too of the time taken with the elections was the charge that the leader would normally give to wrap up the congress plenary. This will now have to await the general council meeting, which will deal with the matters not dealt with by the congress.