THE words Hamilton Green deliberately spoke, back in February, may be serving as inspirations to some in the PNC party who are being accused of setting the stage to rig the internal elections at the 2024 PNC Congress.

Recall, he said: “… if they say he rig elections, I say we should keep rigging to save us from these devils, these bastards, these demons that we have”.

Recall also, that current party leader Aubrey Norton defended Hamilton shading the elder from the continued public tongue-lashing he was receiving. He said explicitly that Green had been “taken out of context” since he was thought to use his language carefully and exceptionally.

Eventually, the embattled former Mayor would come out and apologise for saying and defending rigging as a means to stay in power or to access power in a democratic society made up of laws and rules, such as Guyana, to protect against the outdated practice.

Hamilton Green is fooling no one. His apology was only to save face. Norton’s defence may be linked to his own ideological outlook on rigging.
Now, Norton may be guilty of following his elder’s advice, as many of the PNC party members and executives believe he is creating and setting the stage to influence the outcome of the party’s elections for the leader. He allegedly wants to control Roysdale Forde’s influence over the voting party’s delegates and members.

Firstly, he appointed himself as the Congress Director even though he is a candidate for the upcoming elections in July or August this year.
This self-arrogated responsibility is not only a blistering conflict of interest but it is bad for the party as it does not seem to be a democratic institution. One would have thought that Norton knows how it feels to be “locked out” and have the party lists padded, given his experience with the 2014 Congress and concerns with the process in 2018.

Norton should not be anywhere close to the preparations for the Congress as the fear is that he will rig or put people in the right places to rig it if he feels that he would not get the people’s support against Forde. If he continues to flout the time-honoured PNC traditions and customs, there is no hope for Forde whose vision and dream of rebuilding and reforming the PNC will be in shambles.

There is no hope for anyone who is not on Norton’s team to survive. There is no place for dissenting voices in Norton’s PNC even as the Congress draws closer. Norton has allies on the Congress Committee and at every stage of the party that will ensure he is the Leader and the Presidential Candidate whether he is wanted by the party members or not.

For example, the fiasco with the missing CPU and Computer which was fetched out of the office without a trace. The executive knows when and how it was taken but will anyone speak up to Norton who again defended the act? No, but they will sheepishly gossip at every chance they get.

Norton is consolidating his hold on the PNC and he is doing so like in the style of Forbes Burnham, Hamilton Green and Robert Corbin.
Secondly, Norton controls the party’s finances and has the Central Executive Committee within his tight grip. They have only met two times in over two years in breach of the party’s Constitution which states they are supposed to meet once every quarter. The General Council is made toothless and has even fewer meetings.

Added to that, the General Secretary, Dawn Hasting-Williams, is a round peg in a square hole and does not have a voice for herself. While this is the unfortunate affair of the party’s leadership, Norton is gallivanting in all parts of the country meeting select groups. Some say he is coercing the groups into supporting his reelection bid while others say he is promising them jobs if he is the candidate and wins.

A classic case has to do with the PNC meetings in Lethem, Region Nine and the other hinterland meetings in which Amerindians have made allegations against Norton and Mervyn Williams that border on internal electoral fraud or rigging.

Further, he defended the opposition politicians facing the Courts charged with trying to rig the 2020 elections in the APNU+AFC’s favour. He said the charges are trumped up and politically motivated, but no one is coming to his rescue or defence because they know what is going down with the party’s finances and internal politics quietly behind the veil.

Where are the men and women of the PNC who believe in party democracy and who are staunchly against this rigging syndrome that is gripping Norton and the team? What does the PNC want to stand for in 2024?

What happened to high levels of transparency, accountability and clean campaigning that ought to be a part of this road to Congress? Why is the CC and GC not in unity? Where is the party equipment – CPU? Did anyone get reprimanded for its removal? Is Norton seeking to become a dictator masquerading as a democrat? Who selected the Congress Committee?
Thirdly, another party stalwart and long-standing senior member, Amna Ally said that she would not “lift a finger” because of Norton’s poor and bad management of the affairs.

Ally, a former General Secretary, has been resolute in criticising, publicly, the leadership flaws of Norton and has urged other party members to do the same internally. Ally said she favours Forde and is backing him to win or create an upset in July.

Now, the former MP is part of a wider plan to get back the PNC from Norton. That plan has the diaspora support, but Norton knows this very well and has allegedly planned to fight it with internal rigging. The two factions are still fighting and the membership does not know which side to back.

Finally, this is the brutish race of PNC politics practised internally. Norton will not go until the last fat lady sings and the new challenger, who is gaining party support in the race, does not have a clue of what tricks Norton has hidden for him. They will fight each other and cut down deep, beneath the flesh.

This is the PNC 2024. This is the only thing they will ever be doing. Rig elections and say the party supports democratic values when its actions are that of a dictator. Norton has already been exposed as a leader who cannot deliver, cannot be trusted and has a worn political past. His contender has allegations thrown at him about seeking to allegedly extort money from businesses for casino licences and gambling permits, and he too has lost many political suits. Which will win?