PNCR, AFC downplay vote-splitting to PPP’s advantage

Last Updated on Sunday, 21 July 2024, 19:02 by Writer

Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton speaking with Mr Tacuma Ogunseye’s Defence Lawyer, Nigel Hughes. Also present was Attorney-at-Law Darren Wade (centre).

The People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) have dismissed the likelihood that they could split the Afro-Guyanese voting block which would result in the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) retaining power at next year’s general and regional elections.

“I’m not worried at splitting of votes. Once all the votes add up to more than the PPP and they are out of government, I’m fine,” PNCR Leader, Aubrey Norton told Demerara Waves Online News at the weekend.

He went as far as saying that he would work very hard for a remarriage with the AFC to contest the polls that government said could be held in October or November 2025.

He said he would opt for a combined opposition going to the polls “but it’s not my decision alone; I would prefer a coalition,” he said. Asked if that does not materialise whether it would not amount to splitting of the votes, he remarked that “I’m an optimist. I’m never a pessimist so I wouldn’t look as if I don’t get it; I will work to get it.”

Broadly, he said “all forces of the opposition” would be critical in unseating the PPP from office.

However, AFC Leader Nigel Hughes dismissed completely any notion of splitting the vote, arguing that no party held a stranglehold on any racial segment of the Guyanese society. “Splitting the vote is a highly racist approach to the electorate at any election. Nobody owns any group. Splitting the vote is based on the presumption that people belong to some ethnic party. That is not the case. We are going out to take votes from everybody,” he said.

Mr Hughes said the AFC was competing nationally in every village and town and so his party was not approaching the elections from the point of view of vote-splitting. The AFC has been on outreaches in the Afro-Guyanese dominated Georgetown and Linden as well as several Indo-Guyanese areas in West Demerara. “The entire party is going to be embedded in various parts of this country because we have to be very familiar – that’s why we are at this stage of listening and grounding,” he said. Similarly, the PNCR has been reaching out to many communities across the racial divide.

The traditionally Indo-Guyanese backed PPP has been boasting of attracting more Afro-Guyanese into its fold and saying that many of its policies and programmes have benefitted that segment of the country compared to the PNC and APNU periods in office.

In the 2011 polls, the AFC and the PNCR-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) had separately won a majority of seats in the House but could not have formed the government because the constitution does not allow for post-election coalitions. With its plurality, the PPPC had controlled the Executive Presidency including the cabinet. It was only after they had contested the 2015 elections as a coalition that the electorate had voted out the PPPC from p0wer for the first time since 1992.

On the question of whether he would cede the presidential candidacy in an an opposition coalition, Mr Norton reminded that his party’s June 28 to 30 Biennial Delegates Congress, the PNCR’s highest decision-making forum, passed a motion that he would be the candidate. When reminded that the motion also stated that only he alone could decide if it would be anyone else, he said that that would depend on when the elections would be held. “What one has to do if you are a proper leader is to work out the various options, put your timelines and then, as the time progresses, you make decisions based on the facts at your disposal,” he said.

Meanwhile, the PNCR Leader welcomed the re-entry of Mr Hughes to the political landscape. “Nigel is the new leader of the AFC. I think he is a welcomed addition. My honest hope is that we will pursue coalition politics and unseat the PPP. I believe that you need all the opposition elements,” Mr Norton said. He said a number of unnamed “prominent citizens” would appear on the PNCR’s list as part of the opposition’s candidate.

On the thorny issue of Mr Hughes’ law firm, Hughes, Fields and Stoby-representing ExxonMobil, the PNCR Leader played down concerns about a conflict of interest. “Ideally, I wish it wasn’t as it is but as we progress, I think it’s an issue we can address,” Mr Norton said.

The AFC has appointed a three-member committee to deal with oil and gas rather than have its party leader address those issues, as he is on record as saying that he would not allow anything to affect the quality of legal representation to his clients. Mr Hughes had also said that Attorney-at-Law Andrew Pollard was responsible for the ExxonMobil portfolio for the past 20 years.