Ubraj Narine resigns from PNC/R

Former Mayor of Georgetown Ubraj Narine has resigned from the Peoples National Congress Reform (PNC/R).

Narine submitted his resignation letter today to PNC/R leader Aubrey Norton.

“This decision comes after a period of thoughtful consideration of my personal responsibilities and future aspirations,” Narine said in the letter.

A number of PNC/R officials have been resigning from the political grouping.

Among them are longstanding PNC/R Executive, Mervyn Williams; PNC/R Chair Shurwayne Holder; and Georgetown City Councillor, Robert Maison.

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 had also resigned.

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 2025 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.

Meanwhile, while no clear reason was given for Narine’s resignation from the party, the former Georgetown Mayor had in the past publicly expressed dissatisfaction with the way the PNC/R handled certain matters.

For instance, last year, Narine had called out Holder, then PNC/R Chair, for his unwarranted attack on former General Secretary Amna Ali. Narine had also questioned whether Indo-Guyanese are truly accepted by the party, stating that “does the PNC truly welcome individuals of Indian descent, like myself, under its current leadership?”

Ally had come under attack after referring to Norton, as an “unfit leader”, who was responsible for divisions in the party.