PNC General Council backs Hoyte - will lead party in next election Stabroek News March 27, 2000 Supporters of the People's National Congress (PNC) leader, Desmond Hoyte, on Saturday persuaded the party's General Council to rally behind him as leader and to focus its energies on winning the next election. The council decided that the party would go into the election under Hoyte's leadership in the conviction that doubts about this had fuelled efforts by the People's Progressive Party (PPP) to undermine his credibility and reputation. Hoyte's supporters carried the day in the discussion on his presentation in which he had urged them to be disciplined, mobilised and focused if they were to win the next elections. In his presentation, the PNC leader urged the members to be clear as to why the party was insisting that the election should be held by the January 17, 2001 deadline. He rejected the lobbying by certain sections of the community that the preparations for the elections could not be completed on time, stating that the same had been said of the work of the Constitution Reform Commission and the Special Select Committee which had been set up by the National Assembly to consider its work. Both these bodies, he said, had completed their work within the legislatively mandated deadlines and he noted as well that he had been informed that the work of the Oversight Committee (OSC) was proceeding on schedule. A report on the progress of the OSC's work was also given to the meeting by Haslyn Parris, one of the party's two representatives on the committee; party vice-chairman, Vincent Alexander is the other representative. Stressing the need for discipline and unity, Hoyte told the party that it was the perception of the party's strength that had guaranteed the safety of a number of its members as well as prevented them from losing their jobs. He also told them that the party had a historic duty to win the next election to save the nation, as the Guyanese people were looking to the PNC for salvation. Outlining the task ahead, Hoyte said that the PNC must be prepared to do the necessary foot-slogging to organise their supporters, to check the voters' list to ensure that the people eligible to vote in the areas were on the list, to bring out the party's supporters on polling day and to man the polling stations from the opening of the polling until the count had been concluded, the boxes sealed and the same removed from the polling station. He said that in addition to highlighting the PPP's failure to implement its manifesto, the PNC must campaign vigourously on the programmes to establish a free and open society, the deepening of the democratic culture and the implementation of social policies to assist the poor and disadvantaged to cope with the present circumstances and to eventually rise above them. Hoyte also told them of the necessity to form alliances and understandings with those groups with whom the parties shared a common interest. He stressed that the PNC must project itself as non-racial since racial politics was neither in the party's interest nor that of the nation. Hoyte noted a letter by Dev Prakash, a supporter of Ravi Dev, which, Hoyte said, had expressed an understanding of 'power-sharing.' While this was an unfortunate term, the views expressed approximated to the PNC's presentation before the Constitution Reform Commission. In the discussions the prevailing themes were that the attacks on the PNC leader, if successful, could cause the demise of the whole party; that no other issue was as important as returning the party to power; and that their protests about the 1997 elections were being vindicated by the disclosures in the elections petition case now being heard in the High Court. One of the concerns voiced at the General Council was the need for the PPP to understand that the government had as great a responsibility as the PNC for ensuring that the elections were held by January 17, 2001. They feared that the PNC could be railroaded into making compromises about the voters' list and other aspects of the electoral arrangements which could compromise its ability to win the next elections. A consequence of Saturday's decision is that the search to identify a successor to Hoyte would proceed, but not at the frenzied pace which was expected when the decision was taken at the January meeting of the General Council.