Guyanese Online

The People’s National Congress Reform’s (PNCR) Chief Election Officer, Vincent Alexander on Sunday afternoon officially announced that Aubrey Norton is “poised to be installed” as the next elected leader of that party and that three other persons from Team Norton have been elected to top executive positions.

He rejected suggestions that the prolonged delay in announcing the results had anything to do with internal negotiations. “I want to disabuse the public of any such thought and to distance myself from any such kind of involvement. The results I bring tp you are the results of the election after the count and do not in any way involve any intervention with anyone for any purpose,” said Mr. Alexander before disclosing the results for the top four positions.         

Aubrey Norton

Mr. Alexander declined to entertain any questions until Monday when a declaration is made and the office-holders are installed.  While the tabulated results for the positions of Leader, Chairman, Vice Chairmen and Treasurer were announced, the Chief Election Officer said the results for the 15 Central Executive Committee members were not yet ready.

He also said the party would have to decide how to resolve the tie between Viceroy Jordan and Christopher Jones – 381 votes each- for the position of Vice Chairman although Ms. Elizabeth Niles got the most votes (470) for one of the Vice Chairmen. The PNCR’s Executive caters for two Vice Chairmen.

Mr. Alexander said 1,282 persons cast votes at Saturday’s elections under a delegate system.

Leader: 
Aubrey Norton: 967 (Leader)
Joseph Harmon  245
Richard Vanwest Charles: 64

Chairperson:
Gary Best 156
Simona Broomes 13
Roysdale Forde 256
Dawn Hastings 5
Sherwayne Holder: 407 (Chairman)
Christopher Jones 51
Aubrey Norton 55
Sharma Solomon 36
Amanza Walton-Desir 217
Mervyn Williams 4

Treasurer:
Karen Cummings 303
Ivelaw Henry 44
Vanessa Kissoon 83
Deryck Lawrence 67
Elson Lowe 116
Ubraj Naraine 144
Mohammed Fazer Mursalin 404 (Treasurer)
Clayton Newman 15
Daniel Seeram 303

Vice Chairman
Simona Broomes 82
Annette Ferguson 279
Dawn Hastings 107
Christopher Jones 381 tie for position of Vice Chairman
Viceroy Jordan 381 tie for position of Vice Chairman
Ubraj Naraine 47
Aubrey Norton 82
Danita Prim0 10
Sharma Solomon 126
Darren Wade 166
Elisabeth Niles-Williams 470 (Vice Chairman) 
Mervyn Williams 48

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Mr. Joseph Harmon on Sunday said he would remain Guyana’s Opposition Leader, although he was defeated by Aubrey Norton for the post of leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) which controls the opposition coalition.

He noted that he would remain as an “ordinary member” of the PNCR but would still be Leader of the Opposition, a national constitutional office.

Former PNCR Leader  David Granger, who is Chairman of  the PNCR-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is legally the Representative of the list of candidates for the coalition of APNU+Alliance For Change and so he enjoys the power of recall and replacement of parliamentarians.

In the weeks running up to Saturday’s election, Mr. Harmon had pointed to the trend in which the PNCR Leader is the Opposition Leader and had said that that had been his goal.

For his part, Mr. Norton had not committed himself on the topic when he had been quizzed about whether he would seek the replacement of Mr. Harmon as Opposition Leader. Instead Mr. Norton had indicated that that would be a matter for the party to decide.

Prior to the heated campaign for the PNCR’s internal elections, Mr. Norton had been employed at the Office of the President’s Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration after Mr. Granger had removed him as a presidential advisor.

Mr. Harmon had been Minister of State and latterly Director-General of the Ministry of the Presidency.

After APNU+AFC had lost the March 2o20 general and regional elections, Mr. Harmon had hired Mr. Norton as Executive Director of the Office of the Leader of the Opposition.