Norton touts his qualities for presidential candidacy, but wants selection criteria

Last Updated on Friday, 13 December 2024, 19:28 by Writer

Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton

Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Aubrey Norton on Saturday profiled himself as the best person to be the opposition coalition’s presidential candidate but at the same time he said criteria needed to be developed to pick the right person.

“This whole attack started by suggesting that I wasn’t qualified. Now that the evidence is out there that I’m qualified, it is changing,” he said. Mr Norton said he was not only academically qualified to be the presidential candidate but he was in contact with Guyanese and was a successful foreign policy negotiator for Guyana.

Endorsing Mr Norton was his fellow PNCR Central Executive member, Ganesh Mahipaul who said that throughout his leader’s public life “not once was his name called in anything to do with corruption.”

The PNCR Leader stressed that his party’s congress, its highest decision-making forum, earlier this year passed a resolution stating that he must be the presidential candidate and only he alone could decide on another person.

Alliance for Change (AFC) Leader Nigel Hughes is on record as signaling his interest in being the coalition’s presidential candidate based on scientific data.

The PNCR Leader urged for an examination of the abilities of himself and other presidential candidate hopefuls rather than engaging in arbitrariness. “One of the things, for me, that the leader of a political party has to be able to do is to withstand pressure, not resign as soon as some pressure come to you and while I wouldn’t attack anyone, when it comes to dealing with the presidential candidate, we will have to identify criteria and see who fits the criteria and I’m prepared to be involved in that process,” he said.

Mr Hughes had previously resigned from the post of AFC Chairman.