Following the sudden and tearful resignation of Nicolette Henry as an APNU+AFC Member of Parliament – seemingly to make way for Aubrey Norton to be appointed as the new Leader of the Opposition – the Peoples National Congress Reform (PNC/R) has announced that it has no plans to recall any more parliamentarians.
This position was shared today by PNC’s Chairman Shurwayne Holder during a press conference.
“We don’t have any plans at this time to recall any Member of Parliament,” he expressed.
On February 3, Henry – a former Education Minister under the previous APNU+AFC Government – announced her resignation from Parliament. Reports indicated that Henry will officially step down from this role until March 31.
It is widely speculated that her resignation is to make room for Norton – the PNC’s newly elected leader – to be appointed as a parliamentarian and subsequently take up the role as Opposition Leader.
Despite refusing to step down initially, APNU’s Joseph Harmon resigned from the post on January 26 amid mounting internal pressure. He, however, still remains an Opposition Member of Parliament.
Harmon’s resignation as Opposition Leader also came one day after he had stepped down as General Secretary of the APNU, while former PNC Leader David Granger has resigned as the party’s Chairman. The APNU Chairmanship has since been taken up by Norton.
Both Harmon and Granger were snubbed by the PNC, having not been reelected to the party’s Central Executive Committee – the highest decision-making level of the organisation. In fact, a number of new faces were elected to the Committee, prompting reports that the party is talking to other MPs to resign in order to make way for the new members to join the National Assembly.
But the PNC Chairman indicated that this is not a consideration of the party at the moment.
Nevertheless, he noted that the PNC is focused on reaching out to members who have “moved away” from the party.
“We’ve been reaching out to those persons that have moved away from the party for some time. We’ve been reaching across the aisle to persons who would have been on different teams during the Congress…Mr Harmon would not be excluded. We have been reaching out to him and others. We expect that he will play some role at the parliamentary level. He is still a parliamentarian…,” Holder posited.
In recent times, a number of persons have resigned from the PNC while a number of small parties have withdrawn from the APNU coalition.
