PNCR’s public spat about removal of CPU with membership register linked to party elections

Last Updated on Friday, 19 April 2024, 6:10 by Denis Chabrol

-Jagdeo weighs in on issue

Chairman of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Shurwayne Holder said the issue of the removal of a Computer Processing Unit (CPU), with the membership register, from that party’s Membership Department is linked to the upcoming internal party elections.

“I believe that because we are in the season of congress, that is why you are getting all these back-and-forth and stuff in the media about it,” he told a news conference. The PNCR is expected to hold its overdue congress before August 31, 2024.

Mr Holder said he has already spoken with contestants Attorneys-at-Law Roysdale Forde and Amanza Walton-Desir, assuring them that there was no need for worry. “The reality is that there is a whole big noise about nothing really,” he said, while declining to provide details about what exactly happened.

The PNCR Chairman said there was a “misunderstanding” and “miscommunication played a great role”. Mr Holder said people in the party structure were aware that there was nothing to worry about.  He said the CPU never left Congress Place, the PNCR’s headquarters.

Meanwhile, General Secretary of the governing People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Bharrat Jagdeo, responding to PNCR Executive Member Gary Best’s call for an integrity audit due to the removal of the CPU, said “they are always good at calling for audits but don’t deal with the principle.” “This is typical of APNU. Internal or external elections, they will have falsify and you always have these problems around election time,” he said.

Mr Jagdeo said such problems crop up around election time and so exposes the “very nature” of the PNCR, saying it raises questions about trusting that party to do anything nationally.