PNCR polling agents will block foreigners from voting – Norton

Last Updated on Sunday, 17 November 2024, 23:13 by Writer

Leader of the main opposition People’s National Congress Reform, Aubrey Norton at the weekend hinted that foreigners would be blocked by party polling agents from voting in next year’s general elections.

Addressing a PNCR public meeting at Calcutta, Mahaicony, Mr Norton said opposition polling agents would be on the lookout for foreigners who are clearly not connected to Guyana. “Let we tell them. When we put we polling officers in the polling station and they can’t talk proper English: ‘bam-bam’,” he said. 

At the same time, he informed attendees at the public meeting that there are Venezuelans who were born to Guyanese parents and so could speak English. “You must know that a lot of the children, who returned from Venezuela, of Guyanese descent, they can speak English and so will know that but if government’s plot is to bring people into this c0untry to use them to vote because they recognise they are unpopular, we will not accept that,” he said.

Mr Norton’s position came just days after General Secretary of the governing People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Bharrat Jagdeo publicly challenged him to provide evidence that ineligible foreigners such as Venezuelans and Bangladeshis were being registered so that they could vote in the 2025 general and regional elections.

The PPPC administration has already denied facilitating the registration of Venezuelans to vote in the elections. Several months ago, the PNCR Leader had backed off from his position, saying that it had not found any evidence of foreigners being placed on the voters list. 

Guyanese citizenship can be granted as a result of five years of residency, a Guyanese spouse or Guyanese parentage.

The opposition is also concerned that the Guyana government has been recruiting Bangladeshi and Indian workers who can vote in Guyana’s elections once they, being citizens of Commonwealth member states, reside in the country for at least two years. Saying that the hiring of Bangladeshi drivers was “most disrespectful” to Guyanese, he suggested that Guyana could establish a “proper driving school” in each of Guyana’s 10 administrative regions to train Guyanese. 

Meanwhile, the PNCR Leader said his party would be campaigning in the PPP strongholds, and he encouraged supporters to go door-to-door to encourage people to support the opposition. He said the PPP was aware that it was losing support on the ground so we will keep the pressure on,” he said.

The PPP continues to take credit for making small but important electoral inr0ads in traditional PNCR strongholds such as Georgetown, Linden, New Amsterdam, Bartica and Mahdia in the last local government elections. The PPP General Secretary led a delegation to the predominantly Afro-Guyanese East Coast Demerara village of Beterverwagting last weekend.