–does not want focus to be on leadership confusion in PNC/R camp

SEVERAL members of the media on Friday took Leader of the People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) Aubrey Norton to task over his avoidance of the media and refusal to respond to questions over what is going on with the various leadership positions in the main opposition party.

As questions were fielded at the PNC/R weekly press conference, Norton was asked about issues surrounding the uncertainty over the leadership of the APNU+AFC, the Leader of the Opposition (LOO) post, and the Representative of the List of APNU+AFC, of which the PNCR is the largest member.

Stabroek News journalist Marcelle Thomas was the first to call Norton out, noting that she has been making several efforts to contact him to no avail.
She highlighted the fact that Norton has been outright avoiding answering questions about his party’s leadership confusion.

“This is a question that the public is interested in. The thing is, Mr. Norton, my newspaper has been trying to get you for the longest; we have messaged, we have called, but you are not making yourself accessible. You don’t pick up your calls,” Thomas said.

In his defence, Norton said he was disappointed that the media chose to ask questions about his party’s leadership, and not focus instead on issues that he would prefer that they focus on, particularly his statements on the upcoming 2022 National Budget.

However, the journalists refused to back down from Norton’s avoidance of the issues.

“You commented on media not asking questions [about your statement]. How do you move on to serious issues when you are refusing to address, what I would say, is a leadership confusion in the Opposition,” Thomas pointed out.

She added: “Mr. Norton, sometimes you are not easy to communicate with; you put up an aggressive front that doesn’t make for easy engagement of the press at all. The press is trying to get information from you, as leader of the PNCR, which is the largest party in the Coalition. There seems to be this whole confusion with the whole makeup [of your party] right now; you have a leader of the biggest party who is not the Opposition Leader, who is not the Representative of the List, who is having talks, who is not giving the press any information on those talks. You haven’t even given us a timeframe for when these issues would be resolved; we can only ask questions, but then you get upset when we ask questions.”

Questions on leadership in the Opposition have been swirling since Norton became leader of the PNC/R in December.

KEPT IN THE DARK
With it being customary for the leader of the party to also simultaneously hold a number of other leading positions such as Leader of the Opposition (LoO), Leader of the APNU+AFC coalition, and Representative of the List for the APNU+AFC, the public is in the dark as to what is going on in the PNC/R camp.

Despite Norton being leader of the party, he is not a Member of Parliament (MP). Joseph Harmon, who is currently the LoO, is not even an executive member of the PNC/R.

Harmon would have run against Norton for the PNCR Leader position in the party’s elections last month, but had lost to Norton. Since Harmon was not vying for any other position, he was left out of the party’s executive body. However, according to reports, it was thought that Harmon would have been coopted into the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC); however, only Norton has the power to make that call.

Newsroom journalist Kurt Campbell questioned Norton about this issue, but, again, Norton swerved from giving a direct answer, and would only say that the party is still having internal discussions on the issue.

“The party intends to treat these matters as internal matters; we will discuss, and when we think it is necessary that the press be informed, we will inform the press. We are not in the business of allowing the press to dictate what we say, when we say it, and how we say it,” Norton said.

However, Norton did seem to confirm that Harmon has not been coopted, noting that: “Anybody we have coopted we have informed the press.”

In his first press conference as leader of the PNC/R, Norton had indicated that the CEC had made the decision that he should also be the LoO. However, only the Representative of the List can make that decision, and, yet again, there is conflict.

Former President David Granger is currently the Representative of the List. Granger is also Leader of the APNU+AFC, being Norton’s predecessor as Leader of the PNC/R. However, the leader of the PNC/R is customarily the leader of the APNU+AFC coalition as well.

Questioned about this issue, Norton again sidestepped the question and commented that the press should focus on other matters.

“I promise that at the appropriate time, I will update the press on the situation you refer to,” he said.

Notwithstanding the current situation, Norton has denied that there is confusion in the party’s leadership. He also denied being inaccessible to the media.