-Dr. Jagdeo highlights Norton’s corruption allegations amid internal party scandals

PEOPLE’S Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, has highlighted the duplicity within the statements made by Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton, on corruption when he has been submerged in such allegations.
During a press conference on Thursday at Freedom House, Dr Jagdeo addressed the comments made by the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Leader, during a recent online show with Alliance for Change (AFC) member, Sherod Duncan.

Norton’s comments regarding corruption came just after his party concluded its internal elections, which saw its own members purporting several irregularities and even the former General Secretary, Dawn Hastings-Williams, resigning because of this.
Dr Jagdeo said: “The irony could not be lost on the Guyanese people that this is a person, who has just been accused, that is, Norton, by his own party of engaging in the most corrupt act in his party, of rigging the elections…”
Further, he referenced the blank cheque scenario, which according to former PNCR Treasurer, Faaiz Mursaline, in a previous interview with this publication, from the time he assumed the position of elected treasurer, he was made to sign blank cheques with no supporting documents.

In November 2022, he signed as many as 20 blank cheques.

Dr Jagdeo then referenced the politically motivated charges that were filed against several previous PPP Ministers by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) under the former APNU+AFC government.
Despite this, he noted that the former APNU+AFC government were not successful in this political witch hunt.

However, the mountain of corruption allegations that have been levied against the previous coalition government did not go unchecked by Dr Jagdeo.
He said: “They have a track record of corruption.”

Although, the PNCR has carried the trademark stamp of being riggers, its congress indeed showed that the party is “untrustworthy,” Dr Jagdeo previously said.
Dr Jagdeo, while explaining the history of the party, which has been slowly disintegrating on the national stage, had said that the PNCR had the opportunity at its congress to “reinvent” itself, but it failed to do so.
While the chance presented itself boldly in front of the PNCR’s eyes, the party missed the bus and is continuing to carry the stigma of being “riggers” to the Guyanese people, Dr Jagdeo outlined.

“So, the congress failed to give the people any assurance that they had a clear economic plan for this country,” Dr Jagdeo said, adding: “Their actions and the confusion surrounding the congress just doesn’t make them look less untrustworthy but even their own people, the contending parties have declared that the entire process of the congress was an untrustworthy one, was a rigged one, was designed to achieve a particular outcome.”

“If you can’t be trustworthy to your top leadership and have them defend you, how could you come over as being trustworthy to the people of this country?” Dr Jagdeo rhetorically asked while emphasising that the PNCR failed “miserably” on the metric of trustworthiness.
From the inception, the PNCR’s own members objected to the congress as there were numerous allegations of irregularities that placed a dark cloud over the party.

And even as time progressed and the party geared up for its opening ceremony on June 28, those who challenged the leadership “suspended” their campaigns because of the lack of transparency, among other allegations of infractions.
What was even more shocking was that despite painting the PNCR as a political party with an increasing membership, the party was caught red-handed as the number of delegates constantly changed.