PNCR did not tell supporters to boycott AFC’s Linden meeting – Norton

Last Updated on Wednesday, 21 August 2024, 20:06 by Writer

AFC Leader, Nigel Hughes addressing a public meeting at the Mackenzie Market car park on Saturday 17th August, 2024.

People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Leader, Aubrey Norton on Tuesday said he did not tell supporters in its stronghold of Linden to boycott the Alliance For Change’s (AFC’s) public meeting.

“No, I don’t have to. Why would I? I’ve made it clear that the AFC was part of the coalition. We still have a good relationship with them, he said when asked by Demerara Waves Online News whether he had instructed PNCR supporters not to attend the meeting.

The meeting, which was held at the Mackenzie Market car park last Saturday attracted less than 200 persons and started about an hour late.

Despite that “good relationship” between the two political parties, Mr Norton said he could not have encouraged PNCR supporters to attend the meeting because the AFC did not inform his party that they were planning to hold a meeting in Linden. Mr Norton said he became aware of the meeting one or two days before on social media. “I would consider that if you are a political party and you consider us an ally and you’re holding a political activity and you want our support, you will engage us to say ‘look, we’re having this activity, let’s work out support, etc’, so I do not know that I had to encourage our supporters to participate in something that we weren’t invited to,” he added,

The PNCR Leader said he did not have to discourage anyone from attending the AFC’s meeting but people voluntarily decided what was in their best interest. “I don’t have to discourage anybody from going but do not forget that people are involved in politics and they will do their own assessment to arrive at what they should do and what they shouldn’t do,” he said.

It was an AFC member, Charandass Persaud, who in 2018 had voted for a PPP-sponsored no-confidence motion that eventually led to the Caribbean Court of Justice ruling that, as a result, the APNU+AFC administration had been in caretaker mode. At least two former coalition administration ministers from the AFC had been cited for illegal and improper conduct by the ruling People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC).

Mr Norton said he did not know of anyone who discouraged PNCR members and supporters from attending the event that was well-publicised. “Our members are politically conscious and know what they should support and what they shouldn’t support. I don’t think anybody instructed them or have to instruct them as it relates to understanding the politics of Guyana,” he said.

He said the PNCR and WPA have been talking about coalescing, but none has been held with the AFC as it wants “to do its political work, for now, by itself, and at the right time we will look at coalition politics.”