AS Aubrey Norton now sits as the substantive leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), the party’s leadership has thrown its full support behind the replacement of Joseph Harmon with Norton as Leader of the Opposition in Guyana’s National Assembly.

This was confirmed by Norton in the presence of other party senior members, during the PNCR’s press conference on Friday. Norton said following the decision of the newly elected Central Executive Committee (CEC) this week, he is slated to meet with Mr Harmon before next Wednesday.

“The party’s central executive has decided that the Leader of the Opposition and the leader of the party should be one person,” Norton confirmed in response to questions from the media.
Just a few hours later, however, the Office of the Leader of the Opposition issued a terse statement challenging the PNCR’s statement uttered by Norton.

“The main Parliamentary Opposition is the APNU+AFC coalition and consists of 31 Members of Parliament. The APNU partnership has an established structure and if the executive of a party in the partnership has a position and they wish to express that position; they should follow the established procedures,” the statement from the Opposition Leader’s office read.

It further went on to assert: “The Office of the Leader of the Opposition is a constitutional office and is consequently governed by the constitution.”

While Harmon had initially contested for party leadership at the PNCR’s recently concluded biennial congress, he was defeated by Norton.

The PNCR’s CEC is also calling for the removal of former President David Granger as head of the coalition’s list; the PNCR is a majority bloc in that coalition. It is unclear what legal pathway would be taken to achieve this.