The end of the PNC?

This weekend the PNC/R will go into its Biennial Congress at the party headquarters – Congress Place – and unlike on any previous occasion the leadership position will be hotly contested. Incumbent Robert Corbin is the favourite and his main challenge will come from Dr. Richard Van West Charles, the recently returned son-in-law of LFS Burnham and former Minister of Health.

Capitol News, last evening, virtually confirmed that Dr. Van West Charles and the unimpeachable Winston Murray (who was also nominated to contest the position of leader) will team up against Corbin and his new right hand man, lawyer, Basil Williams. The formal announcement of team Van West Charles/Murray is expected sometime today.

Given the overwhelming number of nominations for Corbin (160+) over Van West Charles (20+), Corbin is expected to be returned leader of the party but there are already growing murmurs that the election process is likely to be seriously flawed which is certain to cause disgruntlement amongst the losers in particular.

There has been a building wave of disenchantment and outright opposition to the leadership of Corbin since the resounding 2006 electoral defeat – the largest in the party’s history. Efforts of party stalwart Vincent Alexander to displace Corbin thereafter were stymied in controversial circumstances at the previous congress and Alexander and other influential members of his team resigned their positions in frustration and remain on the outside to date.

Given the widespread disillusionment with Corbin as leader his imminent return to the senior most post in the party is likely to viewed as unbearable by the many who have been calling for change at the top.

Coupled with the alleged irregular voting system, Corbin may find himself with an unrelenting opposition to his leadership immediately following the election. There are those within the party who feel that Corbin no longer has a valuable contribution to make as leader and with him at the helm the party will only disintegrate further.

The difficulty is that his main contender – Van West Charles – not unlike Corbin himself, is a relic of the dark days of oppressive PNC rule. Van West Charles has garnered some level of local and international support but does not have mass appeal within and without the party to make the impact a contender who wishes to displace Corbin must make. He must be hoping that by teaming up with the highly and widely respected Murray his image will be softened to allow him a surprise victory. It may not be enough.

Corbin and his team have already made overtures to Murray. Williams – the lead nominee for the position of chairman – has reportedly intimated that he is willing to step aside in preference for an Indo-Guyanese candidate as the party seeks a multi-racial leadership duo. Murray is unlikely to seriously consider any offer from Team Corbin as he recently resigned from the position of chairman owing to fundamental disagreements with Corbin in particular on a critical aspect of the party’s philosophy.

Under Corbin the PNC has performed worst than it had ever done previously and under his continued leadership there is no sign of an improvement on that performance. Corbin as leader of the PNC post-2009 will most certainly lead to the further fragmentation of the party and this will be to the natural benefit of the AFC which is already positioning itself as the pre-eminent opposition force given the mounting impotence and increasing irrelevance of the languishing PNC.

PNC faithful are aware that the leadership battle is a most critical one in the party’s recent history and any persistence with Corbin will ensure at least one more round of embarrassing and possibly crippling – if not fatal – electoral defeat. So entrenched is Corbin though that he appears to be an immovable force at the top, and harbours every intention of remaining put even if it means the complete and utter destruction of the party itself.