BOTH Amanza Walton-Desir (AMD) and Roysdale Forde withdrew from the leadership race at the last PNC congress. Forde was unrestrained in talking about the illegitimate dimensions of the congress that made a legal and proper challenge to Norton impossible.

For a devastating critique of the conspiracy listen or watch Forde on the Freddie Kissoon Show two weeks before the congress. If anyone watched that episode, they would have known that Forde was going from the PNC. He and AMD were gone.

Forde was inactive and invisible. Once the legal face of the PNC, his name has been missing in any litigation involving the PNC since the congress last year. AMD moved on. She now has her own party. But out of the blue, Forde showed up and is on the PNC’s nomination list. Obviously, he will be a parliamentarian.

Why after such painful humiliation, Forde has stuck with the Norton hegemony? Because he is thinking in a certain direction that unfortunately AMD should have gone into. Either Forde or AMD would have become the PNC leader last year. I thought it would have been AMD. The woman factor would have favoured her. She has a dynamic style that Forde lacks.
Forde is no fool. He is thinking about 2026 and the next PNC congress. Even if Norton resorts to unprecedented bullyism and refuses to step down, the pressure on him to go will be enormous and that is a mild word. It is not humanly possible for a leader to face extreme humiliation at the poll and survive. It does not happen in world politics.

The main instinct to force Norton to go will take the form of saving the PNC. The argument thrown at Norton will be simple – the PNC is a great historical institution which is part of the Guyanese psyche and we must not let it wither away. This will be the rallying cry of those that want Norton out and it will be persuasive among die-hard PNC supporters.
Norton will become wildly recalcitrant and insist he is not leaving. But it will only be a matter of time. If Azruddin Mohamed picks up votes from areas that have voted for the PNC since 1957,

then Norton may not even survive politically for even a few months. Norton is one of the world’s most depressed politicians at the moment.
He has seen how Mohamed has embarrassed Tacuma Ogunseye, David Hinds, Mark Benschop and Rickford Burke. Those men have been bombarding African Guyanese the past five years with appeals to “stick with your own.”

It has a relentless preaching from those four men of “stick with your own.” But African Guyanese have moved over to Mohamed and the flock includes people who had an intimate relation with Black Power ideology, the biology of the PNC and the emotions of the Hinds bandwagon.

Norton should be careful with stress because the next month will be a nightmare for him. Once Mohamed takes seats from PNC constituencies, Norton may die an instant political death.
If he goes sooner than later, Forde is the only recognisable name along with Ganesh Mahipaul to make a move. And this explains why Forde accepted his mistreatment and stayed.

There is Elson Low. But he has been relegated to the backburner since there was a subtle movement inside the PNC to have him made the consensus candidate after the PNC insisted that if there was to be a consensus candidate it must come from within the PNC.

The way Nigel Hughes was pressuring Norton to step down, Low saw the opportunity to make a move. Since Low did not come out and openly renounce any claim to be the consensus factor, then cat eat his dinner the same way Jermaine Figuera got sidelined after he shook the President’s hand.

AMD did not display astuteness. If she had stayed, I think she would have beaten Forde. I don’t think Mahipaul has sufficient delegates to become the PNC leader. There is a precedent in CARICOM that AMD can turn to. Bruce Golding in Jamaica left the PNP and formed his own party. He was then accepted back into the PNP as leader.
AMD may move in that direction because I doubt she will get a seat. Her prime ministerial candidate is a wayside preacher who will have to pray every hour of the day for divine intervention for AMD to get a parliamentary seat.

Once she is embarrassed by the lack of votes, it will be hard for her to find acceptance back into the PNC. For all intent and purpose, AMD will leave politics after 2026 and Roysdale Forde will become the new leader of the PNC.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.