Norton ready to lead PNCR again but won’t be presidential candidate

Last Updated on Wednesday, 3 June 2026, 6:12 by Denis Chabrol

Despite leading the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR)-dominated A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) to its worst defeat in last year’s general and regional elections, Mr Aubrey Norton on Tuesday indicated that he was ready to run for the position of party leader again.

“The party will determine who is the next leader of the party. I will offer myself as a candidate once I continue to believe that I need to help the rebuilding process. However, if there emerges a candidate that the party is comfortable with, I am prepared to let that candidate emerge,” Mr Norton said on KAMSTV, a pro-Working People’s Alliance (WPA) social media platform. 

However, he again ruled out being APNU’s presidential candidate in Guyana’s elections constitutionally due by 2030, but said he would play a major role in developing a cadre of youths, including a presidential candidate, to appeal to young people in the next general elections. “I’m making a public commitment to the people of Guyana.  Even if I am leader of the party, I will not be the presidential candidate because I do believe, I genuinely believe that you need a generation that is in touch and can relate to the 35 and under and I will mold that generation to become the presidential candidate and a team,” he said.

Mr Norton justified his decision to retain leadership of the PNCR, saying it was part of his plan to “consolidate” the party. The PNCR’s Congress is due to be held this year, but Mr Norton said that would be pushed back to 2027. “That is a decision that will be made by the central executive of the PNC. If you ask me and you want my frank answer, I will allow the consolidation process to occur this year and then probably next year put to the executive of Congress,” he said.

Under Mr Norton’s leadership, APNU has lost seats in municipal strongholds such as Georgetown and Linden to the People’s Progressive Party Civic while retaining majority control. At the regional level, APNU was defeated for the first time in recent history in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica)by the PPPC in the September 2025 general and regional elections, and Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice) by newcomer We Invest in Nationhood (WIN). Mr Norton hails from Linden, the capital town of Region 10.

The PNCR Leader also dismissed repeated calls by sections of his party and the wider public for him to resign, amid numerous defections to the PPPC and APNU’s poor showing in last year’s elections. “I believe that if I abandon the party at this stage, we can generate the problems that happened after Granger left,” he said.

The PNCR is yet to hold a General Council meeting since last year’s general and regional elections.

Meanwhile, Mr Norton, who is APNU’s Representative of the List of Candidates, said he replaced 6 of the 12 parliamentarians after the 2025 elections, partly because a number of them had become “problems in themselves” and there was need to consolidate and rejuvenate the PNCR as a number of them had been parliamentarians for some time. “If you took them back, you were virtually saying to the populace, you don’t care about what they did when they were in government. There were many who became inaccessible to the people, and that was a problem that had to be addressed. Now, when, as leader, I had to name 12 persons, I took all of those into consideration. For instance, if you look at it, you will see that I brought in six people and maintained six that were there before,” he said.

The six retained were Coretta Mc Donald, Ganesh Mahipaul, Juretha Fernandes, Nima Flue-Bess, Sherod Duncan and Vinceroy Jordan. Ms Fernandes and Mr Duncan were Alliance For Change (AFC) members until they defected to the PNCR/APNU on the eve of the elections. The APNU parliamentary team’s six new faces are led by city businessman, Dr Terrence Campbell. Others are Dr Dexter Todd, Saiku Andrews, Dr Riaz Rupnarain, Dr David Hinds and Sharma Solomon.

Among those who did not make it back into the National Assembly are Mr Norton, party chairman Shurwayne Holder, Annette Ferguson, Christopher Jones, and Dr Karen Cummings. Several other prominent PNCR-APNU parliamentarians had already broken away, joined WIN and eventually returned to the National Assembly. Mr Holder has since embraced the PPPC.