–Vice-President Jagdeo says Opposition Leader ignores every fact if it does not suit his narrative

VICE-President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, has said that the Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton, is not ready for the “big league.”
Norton was sworn in as Opposition Leader months after the resignations of Nicolette Henry as a Member of Parliament and Joseph Harmon as Opposition Leader and Member of Parliament.

“I do not think he is ready for the big league, he is complaining, cannot stick with one issue at a time, has a high opinion of himself and, in the process, ignores all facts,” the Vice-President said in an interview which was posted on his official Facebook Page.

His critique of Norton follows an engagement between the two on the sidelines of Europe Day, held at the Georgetown Club on Monday night.
The Vice-President, in his analysis of Norton and his comments, also concluded that the Opposition Leader ignores every fact if it does not suit his narrative.

“For him, he will ignore every fact if it does not suit his narrative… and his narrative is on discrimination… it is a jaundice view, not fact based,” Dr. Jagdeo related.
An indication of Norton’s ignorance of the fact, as outlined by the Vice-President, is his intention to challenge the recount order, which initiated the recount process that essentially ended a protracted electoral process in 2020.

“He wanted to debate the order promulgated by GECOM… I pointed out that the Representation of the People’s Act pointed out how a recount should take place… and, in any case, every one of the international community reports pointed to a PPP victory,” Dr. Jagdeo said

The national recount of all votes cast showed that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) received 233,336 votes, while the APNU+AFC Coalition got 217,920 votes.
Back in 2020, Chief Justice (ag), Roxane George, validated the recount process by saying that the results of the General and Regional Elections must be declared based on the data generated during the National Recount, effectively ruling out the notion that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) could revert to declarations made by the 10 Returning Officers in March.

“As concluded, given the decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Caribbean Court of Justice, the recount cannot be considered to be invalidated, at least not at this point in time. In this context, the Section 84 (1) declarations can no longer be considered useful,” the acting Chief Justice said.

Justice George later added that: “… as determined by the CCJ, unless overturned by a Court in an election petition, the only data that could be used for the declaration of the results of the elections would have to be the recount results or data.”

Subsequent to the acting Chief Justice’s ruling, the Guyana Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed an appeal challenging the legality of the Recount Order which preceded the recount of the votes cast at the March 2 general and regional elections.

“Being the junior player he was in the last elections, I thought he would create some distance between himself and their argument [APNU+AFC]… He embraced it wholeheartedly… he has nothing else to offer and he said he has the SoPs [Statements of Poll] that show that they won… I almost fainted from surprise,” Vice-President Jagdeo said.

The APNU+AFC has repeatedly claimed that it won the elections, based on its SoPs, but had never presented them to the public, or in court during the five-month impasse.
Guyanese, after casting their votes on March 2, 2020, had to endure an unimaginable wait for the results of the General and Regional Elections, as they witnessed alleged unlawful acts and a slew of legal challenges.