Mystery man of the West tracked down

By Nigel Baudains

Nara, real name Leonard, Le Noury is standing in the general election but there had been speculation that the nomination was a spoof. (0560223)

FEARS that an election candidate for the West District did not exist were allayed yesterday. Nara Le Noury’s seat was empty at Wednesday night’s hustings at La Houguette School and nobody spoken to by the Guernsey Press knew of him.

There was even speculation within the district that the nomination might have been a spoof, especially when attempts to contact him proved difficult.

Mr Le Noury’s home in Rue de l’Arquet, St Saviour’s, is not recorded on Digimap or in the phone book and the postcode is not in Guernsey Post’s listings.

Carpenter George Brehaut, 61, who lives at the St Peter’s end of Rue de l’Arquet, said the name was not one he knew.

‘I’ve lived here for 25 years and in St Saviour’s all my life and I’ve never heard of him,’ he said.

Sylvans Sports Club licensee Bas Brehaut said people in the bar had been asking who Mr Le Noury was.

‘I reckon it’s been mentioned 10 or 15 times, maybe more, and nobody knows who he is,’ he said. ‘Even people who have lived in the parish for many years have never heard of him. Most thought Nara was a woman’s name.’

But Mr Le Noury was at home when the Guernsey Press called yesterday.

He said he was a serious candidate and planned to be at La Houguette for the second hustings meeting on Wednesday.

He missed this week’s because of illness and said when it was suggested that people could go to one or the other, he thought the same applied to candidates.

‘I don’t have any agenda and I’m working on my manifesto at the moment,’ he said.

‘A lot of people are unhappy with government. You pick up the paper and all this stuff comes out and it fills my head up.’

Mr Le Noury was formerly a member of the Bhagwan Rashneesh commune in London, which involved courses and meditation.

He has visited India several times and met the Bhagwan. Real name Leonard, he said most people knew him as Nara, which was an abbreviation of Narayana.

He said he had done ‘hundreds of jobs’, many on the Continent, from digging holes to driving a crane but for quite a while he had been sick and unable to work.

* The other candidates for the district’s six seats are Al Brouard, Mimi Byrom, David de Lisle, Paul Domaille, Gloria Dudley-Owen, Dave Gorvel, Marc Laine, Shane Langlois, Robert Plumley, Peter Sirett and Arrun Wilkie.