Today was the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Nomination Day for its 22nd Biennial Delegates Congress on June 28-30, 2024. Earlier today the Party headquarters, Congress Place, was abuzz with friendly rivalry as some contenders entered the compound to the beat of drums and sounds of music.
The three main contenders for Party Leader are Members of Parliament Amanza Walton-Desir; Roysdale Forde S.C; and incumbent Aubrey Norton.
The campaign of Amanza Walton-Desir ramped up the pressure on Leader of the PNCR Aubrey Norton with chants of “Aubrey ‘Nutten’ go,’” “Aubrey got to go,” “He got to go,” “give the young people a chance.” Their voices were also heard adding to the Norton campaign chants, “Our leader, Aubrey Norton” … “he got to go,”
and “Is Amanza fun we.”
Some Norton campaigners appeared ready to confront the Walton-Desir supporters who appeared prepared to stand their ground, obviously energised and enjoying themselves to chants also led by Randolph Critchlow.
Whilst the Norton and Walton-Desir campaigns were similarity prepared with musical support and instruments, the Forde campaign stuck to the traditional mode of a small group presentation void of the revelry and depicting more seriousness and less risk of creating conflict.
Forde, when questioned about walking in as a duo instead of having a larger group chuckled and said, “the show is good but it’s just a show.” The real battle is on the ground, and he has done enough work to feel confident about his chances, the senior counsel said.
Asked why he was not dropping slogans as his rivals, Forde pointed out that the least conflict the better for the party. He also reminded that there are alternate ways of presenting one’s candidacy and he considered party relations very fragile in these contesting times. It is important for us to stay united he said even as he pledged to protect the Party’s democracy.
Preliminary unverified information suggests incumbent Norton may have received more nominations than his rivals. The next stage is for verification of the members, groups and nominees to ensure each member who participated in the process and each nominee is of good financial standing. After that process is completed the nominations will be made final.
Village Voice News was told by reliable insiders that some groups submitted their Nomination List without naming a nominee for Leader.
Norton’s campaign choose a white t-shirt whilst Forde and Walton-Desir used green with their campaign slogan.
