Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Aubrey Norton, today denied that his party, which forms a major of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), is in a state of disintegration over concerns about his leadership style.

“As far as I know I have the support of the PNCR. For me, the most important support is the support of the membership of this party, and the people on the road on the ground, those support I have. As far as I know, I have the support of the Members of Parliament. When we had the budget, we were able to rally all of the Members of Parliament and confronted the PPP budget and exposed them,” the PNC Leader said.

Brushing aside the claims of disintegration within the party, Norton pointed to the coalition’s ability to secure candidates to contest the Local Government Elections in more than 75 the local authority areas.

He, however, admitted that in any organization there are likely to be members who are not in support of all of the positions taken.

He said under his watch, the Central Executive Committee of the PNCR, has been meeting constantly, with meetings held in January, February and March thus far.

Norton said though APNU candidates for the upcoming Local Government Elections were selected at the level of the 80 Local Authority Areas, the CEC had extensive discussions on the Elections before arriving at a decision on its participation.

“A lot of the decisions are made at the local level. At the level of the municipality, those members, at the level of the municipality and the NDC met and decided who they wanted to run. One of the things, I committed as leader of the party to change when I became leader was the situation where people sat at the centre and determined for Local Government what they should do,” the PNC Leader explained.

As the country heads towards the local elections, the APNU is doing so without the support of one of its well-known local authority members – former City Mayor, Patricia Chase-Greene.

In the last Local Government Elections held in 2018, Chase-Greene, who was a Constituency Candidate for the APNU raked in 2,212 votes in Constituency 12 in the City of Georgetown.

But Norton, who played down her departure from the party, said Chase-Greene no longer has the support of her constituency.

“Chase-Greene was operating in Meadow Brook, Meadow Brook chased Greene long now. It’s a while since the people of Meadow Brook would have rejected Chase-Greene…Now, Ms Chase-Greene has the right to choose which ever political party she wants to go to that is her democratic right, but we are convinced of the fact, that our candidate will beat the day light out of her. And she is not well respected in the area,” Norton said.

He had earlier stated that she was placed on the city council through proportional representation at the last elections, when in fact she had contested in the constituency elections.

For the upcoming elections, Chase-Green is on the PPP’s proportional representation list.

Another Former PNC Member, Trichria Richards, who had also secured the most votes in her constituency during the last local elections, has also joined the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP/C) for the upcoming elections. Norton said defection in politics is nothing new in Guyana.

“After any political party would have lost Government, there is a tendency for some people especially those who are not well grounded and rooted in the party to go to another political party. Defection is not new in Guyana, Chandisingh, Vincent Teekah deflected to the PNC in the 70s. In the case of Hamilton Green, I don’t think it was a defection,” Norton reasoned.

Many senior members of the opposition were not seen on nomination day as candidates handed in their lists. The APNU will be launching its public meetings this weekend in a number of local government areas.

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