Dawn Hastings-Williams is new PNCR General Secretary

Last Updated on Thursday, 19 January 2023, 12:16 by Denis Chabrol

PNCR Leader Aubrey Norton flanked by party Chairman Shurwayne Holder and General Secretary Dawn Hastings Williams.

Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Aubrey Norton on Thursday announced that Ms Dawn Hastings-Williams is their party’s new General Secretary.

He described her as “eminently qualified” for the post which she takes over from Ms Geeta Singh-Edmond who resigned in mid-December, 2022. “She has the academic qualifications, she has the integrity. In my opinion, she has been long-standing in the party and most importantly she has a good relationship with all the regions and so in the party and so those factors would have determined,” he said.

Sources said she has been experiencing a particularly personal challenge which she was given four months to address Notably, though she had been listed to speak at a public meeting on August 3, 2022 but did not although she had been present.

Ms Hastings-Williams served as a government minister during the PNCR-led coalition administration from 2015 to 2020.

The PNCR Leader did not permit the new General Secretary to state what would be her immediate priorities as she was just appointed, but she later said she would represent her constituency and being the General Secretary including being “out in the fields” with the Leader and other parliamentarians “in order to fully understand and to have first-0hand knowledge of what is happening.”

Mr Norton also declined to provide details of the decision by the party to appoint her as the new administrative and organising czar of the PNCR, but said she is academically qualified, well-respected and connected to the party countrywide. “I don’t believe it is the place of this party to be telling the public what are the factors informed the appointment of Ms Dawn Hastings-Williams,” he said. He brushed aside a question won why he picked her over Mr Ganesh Mahipaul.

While the PNCR Leader confirmed that Ms Chandan-Edmond is still a member of the party’s 15-member Central Executive, he declined to say whether she was absent from Wednesday’s meeting and if she provided an excuse. He said all members are invited as a group.