PNCR in turmoil: PNC chairman, city councillor quit in party’s continued meltdown

In the latest of what is becoming a perpetual unravelling of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), the party’s Chairman, Sherwayne Holder, and City Councillor, Robert Maison, on Monday resigned, just hours after an interview aired with party Leader, Aubrey Norton, espousing that “the party is a united party”.

Holder and Maison’s resignation also come just hours after longstanding PNCR Executive, Mervyn Williams strikingly made his resignation announcement during a live airing of the party’s weekly programme “Nation Watch”, which he hosted for a number of years. Williams was at the time concluding his interview with the party’s newest lead parliamentarian, businessman, Terrence Campbell.
In a Sunday night interview on the “Sources” Talk Show that the party was already rid of its bad apples, and marching forward as one.
“As far as I’m concerned, the party is united at this stage. Most of the people who generated the problems have gone about their business so it’s a good opportunity for us to know consolidate with a united party,” Norton said in responding to a question about the party has been “highly divided” in recent times, particularly as the party headed into the September 1 General and Regional Elections.
The party’s dismal performance at the recently concluded General and Regional Elections was a crowning wound in its tragic descent. The party, which ran under the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) coalition, managed to garner a subpar 77,998 votes, which landed them just 12 seats in Guyana’s National Assembly, a steep decline of over 139,000 votes when measured against the 217,920 votes the party got in 2020 when it coalesced with the Alliance for Change (AFC) and earned 31 seats in the 12th Parliament.

Exclusion
According to reports it is Holder’s exclusion from APNU’s list of 12 persons headed to Parliament that has sparked his and Maison’s resignation. A former Member of Parliament, Holder had previously served as the APNU Geographical Candidate for Region Two in the 12th Parliament.

Speaking with the Guyana Times on Monday afternoon, PNCR General Secretary, Sherwayne Benjamin noted that he had not yet seen the official resignation from either Holder or Maison, and noted that he was still trying to wrap his head around this latest development. However, Benjamin noted that Holder had exited a social media group for the party’s Central Executive Committee.
“I have not received any official documentation from [Holder] or Mr. Mason. I did see that he (Holder) exited the CEC group. At the moment, I cannot say I am trying to make contact with Shurwayne to make sense of what is happening because I am getting these calls and I want to talk to Shurwayne before I make any announcement,” Benjamin noted.
Another member of the party explained that if Holder had resigned, due to his position as the Chairman of the party his resignation would have to be addressed directly to Norton.
Considered a close ally of Norton, Holder first became a member of the PNCR executive in 2018. He was elected to the CEC during the party’s 21st Biennial Delegates Congress held that year.
At the subsequent Biennial Congress in 2021 Holder was elected to the Chairmanship, a position he was re-elected to in 2024 when the party’s election was rift with accusations of lack of transparency, accountability and fairness.
This latest series of resignations follows what is becoming a regular year on year occurrences for the PNCR over the past few years. The thinning of the herd has included the resignation of many longstanding stalwarts including former General Secretary Amna Ally, who resigned earlier this year. Former Georgetown Mayor, Patricia Chase Green, and City Councillor Trichria Richards, resigned in 2023 ahead of the Local Government Elections, where they debut as members of PNCR’s main political rival the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC). Longstanding party member Ronald Backer, and party Treasurer Fiaaz Mursaline, resigned in 2022.
Youth activists Thandi McAllister and Brian Smith, resigned in 2021. Former General Secretaries Geeta Chandan-Edmond, and Dawn Hastings-Williams resigned those positions in 2022 and 2024 respectively.
Region 10 Executives, and former Parliamentarian Jermaine Figueira, and Vanessa Kissoon, both also resigned this year, as did Former Executives and Parliamentarians James Bond, Amanza Walton-Desir, Natasha Singh Lewis.
Former Region Four Regional Chairman Daniel Seeram and Vice-Chairman Samuel Sandy also resigned this year ahead of the 2020 elections where they both endorsed the PPPC.
McAllister, Chandan-Edmond, Figueira, and Bond have all also crossed the floor and joined the PPPC. Hastings-Williams and Natasha Singh-Lewis have joined the United States sanctioned Azruddin Mohamed’s We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party, which won 16 seats in Parliament in the September 1 elections, and Walton-Desir has formed her own party, the Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) which won a single seat at the GRE.