Electricity subsidy to Linden will not be removed- Norton

Last Updated on Monday, 11 August 2025, 21:43 by Writer

Presidential candidate for A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Aubrey Norton on Sunday assured residents of Linden that the electricity subsidy would not be scrapped.

“We saying to you that wouldn’t happen under us. We want to see Linden progress,” he told about 2,000 attendees at a campaign rally held outside the old Palm Tree Cinema in Wismar.

Mr Norton said Linden has scope to develop industries other than bauxite, but they depend on cheap electricity supply. “We will work assiduously to ensure that there is always cheap electricity in Linden,” he said.

Addressing the rally in his hometown, Mr Norton believed that the government was plotting to remove the electricity subsidy from Linden.

He dismissed utterances by Prime Minister Mark Phillips, who went to Linden and told residents that that town would be connected to the national grid.

“Understand what they’re trying to tell you, is a nice way of saying to you, ‘we’re removing the subsidy from electricity in Linden’. That must not happen. It must not,” he said.

The government plans to link Linden with the natural gas-fired generating plant at Wales, West Bank Demerara, now expected to be finished by mid-2026.

In June 2012, violent protests erupted after the then opposition A Partnership for National Unity, under intense internal pressure, had backpedaled on a bipartisan agreement with the People’s Progressive Party Civic-led administration to remove the subsidy that would have seen Lindeners’ tariff moving from GY$5 KwH to GY$65 Kwh. At least three protesters were shot dead during the unrest.

The APNU presidential candidate, who is also the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) leader, hinted that he would not be backing down from his position that the cash transfer for students, styled the “Because We Care cash grant” must be linked to conditions.

We don’t want to give you for your to do your hair. You all are already good looking. You don’t have to doll up. We’re giving you it for you to ensure that your child stays in school and gets an education,” he said.

Flaying the government for the closure of the Charles Roza School of Nursing, Mr Norton said an APNU-led government would open a network of nursing schools across Guyana.

Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony on Monday said the Charles Roza School of Nursing is not closed and it is either Mr Norton is “out of touch with reality or it’s an outright lie.”

He said under his administration, if he wins the September 1 general and regional elections, they would train more nurses, doctors and pharmacists to support the several hospitals that were being constructed by the People’s Progressive Party Civic-led administration.

Many of the attendees traveled in a motorcade from the Square of the Revolution in Georgetown.