Roysdale Forde active in PNCR work; Norton, Forde say party united

Last Updated on Saturday, 11 January 2025, 13:27 by Writer

Shadow Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Roysdale Forde on Saturday confirmed that he has been actively involved in the work of his People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), despite last year’s bitter fallout over alleged internal election irregularities that saw him withdrawing from the contest.

“I’ve been involved all the time, many, many months in the party activities,” he told Demerara Waves Online News.

Mr Forde said he expected a “united” PNCR going into the 2025 general and regional elections.

Remarking that on Friday Mr Forde assisted in drafting the press conference statement, PNCR Leader Aubrey Norton said steps were being taken to unite his party. “We are uniting our party. We are doing everything but we will make our decisions as to who speaks to who, what and how because politics is not by chance,” he said.

Mr Norton scoffed at the question of whether himself and Mr Forde had engaged in “fence-mending” after the internal elections that had been marred by concerns about manipulation of the delegate registration system in favour of the incumbent. He said competitions for leadership were normal during election contests after which the contestants settle their differences and move on at the initiative of the leader. “I don’t know what fence we have to mend. In political parties, there have always been fights. It’s a reality. When an election is coming, people will challenge and people will be challenged. There were those challenges,” he said.

According to the veteran Guyanese politician, he has had “very long, intense discussions with Roysdale Forde and as far as I’m concerned we don’t have a problem”. Similarly, he said he had talks with Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister, Amanza Walton-Desir and “as far as I am concerned there isn’t a major problem.”

The PNCR Leader credited himself with being at the helm of a party whose membership has grown from 20,000 to 30,000. Last July, the PNCR’s Congress Administrator had said the party had 23,000 members and 1,800 of the 2,300 delegates attended the congress.