PNCR tragedy, Norton must go

Sep 17, 2025 Editorial, News

Kaieteur News – Guyanese are looking at a patient that may have to be put on life support soon. The PNCR haemorrhaged from the outside on September 1, when so many voters sheltered in place. Not one step out of the door. Not to any polling station. Not for the party of their fathers and grandfathers. The AFC disintegrated first, and that was the verdict of the ballot box. Now the PNCR haemorrhages further, almost like a river, this time on the inside with longstanding members throwing in the towel, wanting to put as much distance between themselves and the party that they loved so long.

The first question is what is going on? The second is why so many, some who it was believed couldn’t be separated from the PNCR by a blowtorch, or a tow truck winching and hauling away a stuck object? The third question that the PNCR cowers from is who is next, how many more could there be lining up to jump ship? There is a school of thought that there is great disfavour with Mr. Aubrey Norton’s leadership of the party in the last elections, in that he wasn’t trying hard enough, and what could be responsible for that approach. There seems to be some reasonable grounds for such ideas, since the PNCR was a far cry from its usual boisterous campaigning self. Why was it so subdued? Why the embarrassing intervals of starting and stopping in coalescing talks with the AFC? Why were there not greater efforts to cultivate crossover voters from across the political and racial divide? All of those issues have now come full circle and stop at Mr. Norton’s door.

Norton is the problem, and it is a huge one, according to many PNCR insiders. For the PNCR to grow, he has to go. It’s as simple as that, and that jarring. There appears to be a consensus building inside of the PNCR, that since Norton is the problem, he cannot be part of the solution. It is obvious that the voters were not inspired to any great degree by Norton, which they made known in the most unambiguous manner on September 1^st. It was the worst performance for the PNCR since Guyana gained Independence in 1966, almost 60 years ago. Any leader that presides over such a disastrous run at the polls, hailed as the most crucial in Guyana’s history, has only one option left. He has to do the decent thing, and resign immediately. The fact is that Mr. Norton is hanging around, even as he is losing party veterans in a steady trickle. It’s a trickle that threatens to deteriorate into a full-fledged exodus of comrades.

To date, there is no indication that those who have left the PNCR have been bought over by the PPPC juggernaut. The timing is all wrong, since the returning PPPC Government has already handed out the plum political positions to people that the party’s leaders feel were on their side when everything was still up in the air, personnel decisions still to come. So, any claim of political betrayal wouldn’t have much traction, which refocuses all eyes right back on Aubrey Norton. He seems unfazed by the departures, and gives every impression of digging in his heels for a long stay. He makes that his position, and commonsense suggests that he would become the worst enemy of the PNCR, and probably be responsible for tumbling it into oblivion.

A leader open to listening, one that is inclined to reason, would not want to stick around. The circumstances and swell of negative sentiment are too much against him. If the PNCR leader is not hearing that, then he, at least, should be sensing it, given the savvy political veteran that he is. Whether it is a stubbornness born of pride, or some misplaced vision that he could be the savior of a party now on the rocks, that’s up for debate. Whatever it is, he has to let go of his ego, and think of not what is good for Aubrey Norton, but what’s good for the party of Burnham and Hoyte, and of so many others. Aubrey Norton should do the right thing: resign.

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APNU, Editorial, Norton, PNCR

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