Norton warns election rigging will not be tolerated

Last Updated on Friday, 1 August 2025, 19:03 by Writer

Leader and presidential candidate of the opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Aubrey Norton on Thursday night warned that there would be zero tolerance of any attempt to rig next month’s general and regional elections, even as he dismissed the ruling People’s Progressive Party Civic’s (PPPC) ambition to secure a two-thirds parliamentary majority.

“I told the EU Observers today (Thursday) that if the PPP believes they would rig these elections, they won’t like the outcome. We will not allow them to rig the elections,” he said.

In recent weeks, PPP campaigners have been stating that their targets include taking control of the traditional PNCR stronghold of Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), 55,000 votes from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) and two-thirds or 43 of the 65 seats in the National Assembly.

Addressing the annual Buxton Emancipation Celebration to usher in the August 1 observance of the 187th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, he cast doubt on the supernumerary returning officers to declare accurate results. “They are hoping that they can use them because they are PPP to declare whatever results they give to them. We say to the PPP: Let better sense prevail because we will not condone the rigging of the 2025 elections. Whatever happen after you rig, it will be your responsibility because we have already decided we had enough of your garbage,” said Mr Norton, once regarded as a militant organiser and activist who had led street protests in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Under the amended Representation of the People Act, stemming from the 2020 Region/District Four debacle of fictitious results in favour of the then incumbent APNU+Alliance For Change administration, GECOM has appointed supernumerary returning officers for sub-districts in District Three (West Demerara-Essequibo Islands, District Four (Demerara-Mahaica) and District Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).

The amended Representation of the People Act also requires GECOM to post the statements of poll on its website to allow the general public to follow the results.

The APNU, AFC, Working People’s Alliance and Forward Guyana Movement had complained that the size of the voters list, compared to Guyana’s population size, opens the door for multiple voting and voter impersonation. But GECOM and the PPP had repeatedly assured that there are sufficient safeguards at polling stations to prevent cheating. They include political party representatives counting of votes at the poll and the signing of statements of poll by those representatives.

Confident of an APNU victory hinged on a large turnout of supporters, Mr Norton said PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo was merely creating a smokescreen by predicting that there would be a massive victory. “He cannot get any landslide. He cannot win. What he is trying to do is to create in the minds of people that they are popular,” he said. He also said the PPP was resorting to artificial intelligence (AI) to change videos and images in its favour and against its opponents. “The truth of the matter is that they are fetching around their crowd and they are not getting the support of the villages and we must not be fooled by what they are doing,” he said.

Against the backdrop of concerns that the PPPC was recirculating small-scale drainage and road building contractors around several meetings, General Secretary Jagdeo rubbished that assertion and said many of them were from communities where meetings were being held. “A lot of these people go in an organic way. We don’t have to bus people into meetings,” he said.