Leader of the People’s National Congress and APNU Chairman, Aubrey Norton, has indicated that his party was forced to look out for its best interest and the interest of the country after failing to reach an agreement with the WIN party ahead of the election for Chairpersons and Vice Chairpersons in the administrative regions on Friday.
The two sides were looking to lean on each other’s support in Regions 4, 8 and 10, where the governing People’s Progressive Party did not win an outright majority.
In Region 4, while the PPP secured the largest number of votes on its own, the other combined parties elected to the Council secured more votes, thereby giving them a one-seat majority. In Region 8, the PPP and the WIN party secured the same number of seats with the APNU securing one seat, which would be a deciding vote. In Region 10, the WIN party secured 9 seats, but the other parties on the Council, the APNU, PPP and Forward Guyana, together hold the other 9 seats.
Speaking to News Source, Mr. Norton said the APNU was trying to pursue an agreement with the WIN party in the three regions, but with the absence of an agreement, his party had to put forward its own candidates for the Chairman and Vice Chairman positions.
“I would say about Region 10 that we were trying to pursue an agreement with WIN which never came through, and so we took a position that we will nominate our candidate, and let the chips fall where they may. We believe that as APNU, we deserve to be involved in Linden, and we were willing to negotiate, and they weren’t willing to. So we collaborated with no one. We identified our candidate, accepted what support the candidate got, and we will move forward”, Norton said.
During the discussions for an agreement, the APNU, which secured the second highest number of votes in Region 10 coming after the WIN party, offered its support for the WIN party to have the Chairmanship position, but wanted the Vice Chairmanship position in return.
APNU Officials said the WIN party wanted to hold on to both the Chairman and Vice Chairman positions in Region 10, resulting in the likelihood of a deal falling to pieces.
The APNU nominated its own candidate for the position of Chairman and that nominee appeared to have picked up the support of the three PPP Councillors as well as the one FGM Councillor, resulting in the vote for Chairman being tied at nine votes each.
That tie will have to be broken by the Minister of Local Government.
“We have been over the period trying to engage, to have a comprehensive approach to all the regions, but we were unsuccessful”, Norton said.
In Region 8, where the WIN party secured three seats on the Council and the PPP secured three seats on the Council, and the APNU with one seat, there appeared again to be no agreement. APNU Officials said they were willing to support the WIN Candidate for Chairman, but wanted WIN to support the APNU with the Vice Chairman position. The officials familiar with the talks, said again, the WIN party rejected the proposal and wanted to hold on to both the Chairman and Vice Chairman position.
In the end, the one APNU Councillor in Region 8 voted in favour of the PPP Candidate for Chairman, and the PPP Councillors in Region 8 voted in support of the APNU Candidate for Vice Chairman.
By the time voting was getting underway in Region 4, which is the seat of Government, the voting in Regions 4 and 10 was already complete.
Norton said the APNU was willing to support the WIN nominee for Vice Chairman, once WIN supported its nominee for Chairman and to even support the FGM Councillor to hold key committee positions for their support.
When the votes were cast, the WIN party councillors reportedly all handed in blank ballot papers, spoiling those ballots and thereby taking away their support from the APNU nominee, but the PPP with its 17 seats ended up with 18 votes for the Chairmanship position and winning that position. Although the ballot was a secret ballot, based on the voting trend, it appeared as though there was an APNU Councillor who did not support the APNU Candidate for the position.
Norton said by the WIN party councillors abstaining from the vote, the Chairmanship and Vice Chairmanship for Region 4 were handed over to the PPP.
“We didn’t collaborate with the PPP. The PPP didn’t collaborate with us, or else, we might have had a different situation in Region 4. And to the extent that they abstained in Region 4 and allowed the PPP to win, you know who actually colluded with the PPP”, Norton said.
In a separate statement just after the elections on Friday afternoon across the regions, the APNU said despite its genuine efforts to arrive at a cooperative framework that would reflect “the aspirations of our shared constituents”, the parties were unable to finalize an understanding before the elections.
The party said in light of this, it took the decision to move forward independently and to support its own slate of candidates for the positions of Regional Chairs and Vice-Chairs.
“This decision reflects our commitment to ensuring that the people we represent continue to benefit from strong, principled, and accountable leadership at the regional level. APNU remains open to future dialogue and collaboration with all political stakeholders in pursuit of unity, good governance, and development”, the APNU said.
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