PPP will not be allowed to remain in office illegally – Norton

Last Updated on Monday, 25 August 2025, 22:40 by Writer

Leader and presidential candidate for the main opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Aubrey Norton on Sunday said he would not tolerate the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) clinging on to power if it loses next week’s general and regional elections.

“I want to say this to all our supporters. Once we beat the People’s Progressive Party, they must go or they will face the consequences,” he told one of APNU’s largest community meetings held in the East Coast Demerara village of Plaisance.

Reacting to PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo’s warning that the security forces were on standby to put down any post-election unrest, Mr Norton expressed confidence that “we’re going to beat you.”

Describing Mr Jagdeo as a “complete idiot”, Mr Norton, who is also leader of the People’s National Congress Reform, cautioned the PPPC against falling into a false sense of insecurity because his party opted not to stage street protests and instead build its multi-ethnic support and participate in parliamentary sittings.

Labelling Mr Jagdeo, who is also Guyana’s 2nd Vice President a “lil coward” from Mahaica who is hiding behind State power, the PNCR-APNU leader challenged him to bring out the security forces.

“If Jagdeo believes that because we didn’t take them on, we lack the capacity to, then he’s fooling himself and we know that he trembles as soon as there is pressure though he is behaving like bad bald head boy,” he said.

Mr Norton said APNU was “interested in peace” and “we have campaigned peacefully.” “We would like to be peaceful but we would not accept subjugation,” he said.

Earlier this month, the APNU presidential candidate had warned the PPPC that “we are prepared to behave bad if illegalities occur” to retain power.

Meanwhile, Mr Norton on Saturday also accused government of “instilling fear” into public servants who express their views on social media. He urged Guyanese to take advantage of the secret ballot. “This is the opportunity to liberate yourself from this dictatorship, led by Bharrat Jagdeo and his puppet Irfaan Ali,” he said.

On Sunday night, Mr Jagdeo sent a clear message to Mr Norton and the leader of We Invest in Nationhood, Azruddin Mohamed that the security forces would not tolerate any election-related disturbances by those two “kangalangs”.

At stake are the presidency, 65 parliamentary seats and seats on the 10 regional councils.