Latest update May 30th, 2026 12:17 AM
A price to pay for holding tight to conspiracy theories
Dear Editor,
Kaieteur News – The scene was Nominations Day. The location, Umana Yana. Standing behind police barricades mounted to keep the peace and good order for the handing over of political party lists of candidates for G&RE, Mr Aubrey Morton gave a stand-up interview to media reps.
In the funny looking interview because of how it took place, Mr Norton was asked if he was satisfied with the procedures put in place by GECOM. Norton deflected, he called for a total revamping of GECOM asserting that the body was doing everything to please the PPP/C and to rig the upcoming elections.
If one were to cast their minds back to the list of issues the APNU and other opposition forces have been casting around since 2020, it would come as no surprise that now, as a presidential candidate, Mr. Norton persists with conspiracy theories. Unsurprisingly, his three representatives at GECOM waste no time in their efforts to keep stirring the brew.
Having lost the election in 2020, the APNU+AFC immediately launched a smear campaign against GECOM, especially the Chairman and the newly installed CEO. A slew of fabrications were concocted to stoke the claim that the PPP/C had ‘lost’ the election and was ‘installed’ in government by external forces.
Having been badly damaged from the battering they received in the aftermath of the 2020 elections, the APNU resiled from their fictitious rhetoric and began wooing and serenading the same external forces who they once criticized and even tried to eject from the Ashmin’s building.
By 2022, they complained, falsely, that on Election Day 2020, persons whose names were on the voters list but were not in Guyana had others vote for them. They further claimed that individuals who impersonated the deceased were allowed to vote; later, they claimed that they had in their possession the Statements of Poll (SOP)to prove that the elections were rigged to keep them out of office. And as though those falsities were insufficient, they started drumming up claims that non-nationals were handed ID cards that would allow them to vote at local government and other elections;
As Opposition Leader and now Presidential Candidate Mr Norton has somehow managed to downplay and put to rest these outlandish propagandistic fabrications, at the same time, his team at the Commission have cranked up a fresh set of conspiratorially inspired theories claiming that to stop voter fraud biometrics must be introduced; that the so-called ‘bloated voters list’ be abandoned and above all, that GECOM be revamped completely.
The problem with PNC conspiracy theorists is, the more they talk about lack of confidence in GECOM and ‘flaws’ in the electoral process the more their supporters are likely to believe what their leaders tell them. Thus, the question; why would PNC supporters want to go out to vote when they are repeatedly told by their leaders that ‘their vote won’t count?’
In the circumstances, a low voter turnout of electors supportive of the APNU will obviously benefit the PPP/C and others who will not hesitate to join in a feast on the carcass of the APNU.
But the big question facing Mr. Norton, his party members and supporters is what is likely to be the fall-out from the open revolt over his leadership attributes and administrative decisions about a host of issues that has since resulted in the hemorrhaging of erstwhile senior members of this party in the face of an impending election. Only after the elections will we have answers.
But the most worrisome issue facing Norton is a strategic, if not minimalist one. Will his party re-enter parliament after September 1, with a reduced number of seats, drastically down from the thirty-one (31) he controlled in the last parliament?
This time around, seats won by the AFC, if any at all, would not reflect the number of seats Norton would control in parliament. Norton’s extra-parliamentary standing has been further weakened due to the fact that four (4) of his former MPs bolted in different political directions. His worries are mounting due to the increasing pull from his base by the WIN factor. A worst-case scenario, would spell disaster for Norton and a crisis in the leadership of the PNC.
Yours faithfully,
Clement J. Rohee
Share this:
Discover more from Kaieteur News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Sir. Ronald Sanders
The GHK Lall Column
Weekend Cartoon
