“I couldn’t bear it anymore” – former PNCR Treasurer says racism in party too overwhelming, endorses PPP/C

Former Treasurer of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Faaiz Mursaline, has cited the pervasive racism he faced within the party, as he publicly endorsed President Irfaan Ali and threw his support behind the governing People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) for a second term.
In a video interview with another media house, Mursaline praised the “massive, rapid” infrastructure development and national progress taking place under the PPP.
The interview, released Tuesday on social media, Mursaline described the hostility he faced within the PNCR as too overwhelming to tolerate.
‘Oh, you have been put there by the African vote.’ These were the kinds of rhetoric that were being said,” he recounted. “I couldn’t bear it anymore. My loyalty was attached to that party, but not anymore. Not anymore.”
Mursaline described the PNCR as being “marred in controversy” and being a downward spiral under the leadership of current leader Aubrey Norton, who has headed the PNCR since 2021. According to Mursaline, the party “was never an inclusive party”.
“It is a political organisation going down. The party had its own crabs in the barrel. It was never an inclusive party,” he said. ‘It’s gone down to the lowest, and Norton is not seeing it because he has surrounded himself with his own type of people that will always say, ‘Yes, comrade leader,’ and not maybe or no.”
He praised the recent remarks of Attorney James Bond, another former PNCR Executive, that “there is no PNCR anymore”, calling it a reflection of how deeply the party has fallen. Bond is among a plethora of PNCR executives who have left the party, many of whom have joined ranks with the PPPC. Bond is currently a candidate for the PPPC at the upcoming 2025 General and Regional Elections, which are slated for September 1.
Mursaline had signalled his discontent with the party since late 2022, after he resigned as treasurer of the party. According to Mursaline, his time as treasurer was marked not only by racial tensions but also by troubling financial practices.
In his resignation letter, Mursaline noted: “…the constant racial hostility from [name withheld] is just too much for me to handle, and the leader seems to not care.”
According to Mursaline, from the time he assumed the position of elected treasurer, he was made to sign several blank cheques with no supporting documents. He alleged that he was pressured to sign up to 20 blank cheques at a time with no supporting documents—a red flag that prompted him to call for an audit. However, his proposal was dismissed by the party’s leadership. Now aligned with the PPP, Mursaline says he is ready to leave the past behind and focus on the progress being delivered under President Ali’s administration. “I just want to congratulate President Ali for what he is doing. His government is leading a massive, rapid expansion for infrastructure work in this country,” Mursaline said, citing upcoming projects such as the major regional hospital, the need for regional airports, the major highway in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), and the proposed Corentyne bridge to link Guyana and Suriname.
“Now things are happening! In the next term we need to increase the speed a little bit more, and I wish them all the best,” he added.
Mursaline also credited the PPP Administration with guiding the country through the COVID-19 pandemic and initiating meaningful recovery. “People have to hold the line, because in the end the PPPC captured this country from the COVID-19 pandemic… With less than three and a half years, you see what is happening here.”
His departure from PNCR and endorsement of the PPP marks the latest in a series of high-profile exits from the opposition party amid growing internal divisions, questions of accountability, and charges of exclusivity.
Three former PNCR General Secretaries, Amna Ally, Geeta Chandan and Dawn Hastings, resigned from the party while chastising the leadership of the party under Norton. Chandan-Edmond has since joined the PPPC List of Candidates, while Hastings has joined ranks with the We Invest In Nationhood (WIN) party.
Other PNCR members that have also since left the party include former Youth Leader Thandi McAllister, Mayor Patricia Chase-Green, former Georgetown Councillor Trichria Richards, long-time member Vanessa Kissoon, Region Four Regional Chairman Daniel Seeram, Regional Vice Chairman for Region Four Samuel Sandy, former Bartica Mayor Gifford Marshall, and Members of Parliament (MP) Natasha Singh-Lewis, Jermaine Figueira, Amanza Walton-Desir, and former Minister Simona Broomes. McAllister, Chase-Green, Richards, Seeram, Sandy, and Marshall have all publicly announced their support for the PPPC. Singh-Lewis has joined WIN, while Walton-Desir and Broomes have all formed their own parties.