— Vice-President Jagdeo

VICE-PRESIDENT, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, has debunked claims by Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton that he has in possession the original Statements of Poll (SoPs) that showed the APNU+AFC Coalition won the March 2020 elections.

The Vice-President offered his rebuttal to Norton on social media platform “The Guyana Dialogue” last Thursday. The programme was hosted by social media personality, Shameeza Ally and moderated by former UG lecturer, Dr Tara Singh with Dave Narine as a commentator.

“They (leading PNC+AFC members) never stated they were in possession of SoPs that showed they won. The APNU and PNC when they were in government assigned an insignificant role to Norton; so he should not be taken seriously,” said Dr Jagdeo while reminding viewers that Norton was part of the PNC rigging machine that kept them in power for 28 years.

He added: “Norton was part of that PNC structure, albeit a junior one at the time that wholly embraced the rigging ethos and philosophy of the PNC. His behaviour and comment are not strange. He was nurtured in PNC. He played a role in a junior level in the 28 years of PNC and rigging is part of DNA to stay in power. In last five years of PNC, he was placed in a position of insignificance because the leadership did not think he had anything useful to contribute. In 2020… he tried to defend the indefensible. He is devoid of facts. He is delusional of realty. He claims that the donor reports stated that APNU won. He is devoid of realty. Every donor report said PPP won the elections, which is opposite to what he claimed.”

On Friday, Norton did a U-turn on his claim, denying that he said he has the Coalition’s ‘winning’ Statements of Poll (SoPs) during an exchange with Vice-President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo at the Georgetown Club on Monday.

“Could you bring, at any point in time, a piece of clip in which I said I had the winning SoPs? I did not,” he told reporters outside the Office of the President after meeting with President, Dr Irfaan Ali on Friday.

During the exchange at the Georgetown Club on Monday, the Opposition Leader challenged the Vice-President to a public debate, to which the Vice-President agreed, but on condition that the Opposition Leader presents the APNU+AFC’s SoPs from the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections.

The APNU+AFC has repeatedly claimed that it won the elections, based on its SoPs, but has never presented them to the public, or in court during the five-month impasse in 2020 in which it tried every conceivable means to hold on to power but failed.

Norton told Jagdeo that he is willing to submit those SoPs, but only at the end of the debate between them.

On Friday, the Opposition Leader in a haste to dodge reporters’ questions on his ‘winning’ SoPs, apparently got confused an entered the wrong vehicle. Norton was seen exiting the vehicle he first entered and quickly making his way into another, all the while maintaining stony silence to questions from reporters.