Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo

Norton ‘bereft’ of leadership skills

Theembattled leader of the PNCR-led APNU+AFC Coalition, Aubrey Norton, is bereft of ideas, charisma, dynamism and leadership skills, according to People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo.

During a news conference at Freedom House on Thursday (March 23, 2023), he noted that this fact is exposed by his reliance on ‘fossils’ – persons who love in the past, have a history of anti-national actions, are jealous of young people who face a future of exciting possibilities and lack integrity.

He noted that the rollout of “fossils” is a trend that Guyanese are subjected to during election periods. Jagdeo said, “These people become active at elections.”

According to him, the PNCR-led Coalition’s trend has been to use the persons they trot out to attempt to redirect Guyanese from history. “There has not been a single period from the nearly 33 years that they were in office, where they have not stolen to attempted to steal an election. …that will has not changed and will not change. It is part of their DNA.”

During the last election cycle in Guyana, Guyanese saw the:

• Peddling of misinformation related to the circulation of fake national identification cards;

• Signatures of the PNCR Chairperson, Volda Lawrence, and Coalition activist, Carol Joseph, on manipulated declarations for Region 4, which increased votes for the APNU+AFC and decreased the votes for the PPP/C –declarations that were ex - posed during the national recount as manipulated;

• Machinations that saw Assistant Commissioner, Edgar Thomas, being removed from his position at the GECOM Command Centre at Ashmin’s Building after he refused the instruction from Deputy Chief Election Commissioner, Roxanne Myers, to remove GECOM Commissioner, Sase Gunraj, from the building;

• Barring the media from entering the GECOM’s Command Center at Ashmin’s Building;

• Multiple court actions, which, among other things, scuttled multiple GECOM meetings and prevented a finalizing of the election results;

• The former Chief Election Officer, Keith Lowenfield’s flouting of a court order;

• The Coalition-nominated GECOM Commissioners’ efforts to push through a report from the Chief Election Officer to declare a victory for the Coalition, despite the fact that the report included manipulated numbers;

• Efforts to have Giftland Mall remove the security cameras that captured parts of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), where the national recount was taking place; and

• Efforts to remove GECOM Commissioner Robeson Benn from the ACCC when ballot boxes were being moved there for the national recount, among many other infractions.

“We will remind this country,” Jagdeo charged, adding that, “If we don’t remember what happened than we will have no future.”

Ogunseye’s actions...

would test our brothers and sisters. They will have to make up their minds. Either they live with us or they live with the PPP. And if they shoot us down, we will shoot them back. We want to be crystally clear. And if the Police and the Army allow themselves to be used to slaughter our people, we will wage a war against them.”

Jagdeo, in response said, “As dangerous as the comment are, they are part of what they (the WPA/PNCR/ APNU) are historically and the WPA became defunct when (Dr. Walter) Rodney died.”

He added that many of those from the WPA who pontificate currently have