FORMER Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton is confronting APNU’s historic election loss, announcing that he will not seek the presidency again and has stepped aside for businessman Terrence Campbell to lead the party in Parliament.
At APNU’s first press conference since its defeat, Norton confirmed that the party has begun a comprehensive review of its performance following its loss of the main opposition seat and several traditional strongholds to newcomer We Invest in Nationhood (WIN).
“We have started a review. All the candidates met. They have another review session this afternoon with a smaller group. We will review it and develop our strategies and tactics,” Norton said. While he stressed that the process is urgent, no timeline has been set, and there is no guarantee that the findings will be made public.
Norton, APNU’s 2025 presidential candidate, compared the coalition’s loss to past setbacks, including the 1961 and 2006 elections, when the PNC-R – APNU’s main component – also ceded ground to new parties.
Campbell, who once publicly criticised Norton’s leadership and declared APNU’s coalition talks “untenable,” will now serve as APNU’s lead MP. He had previously acted as a negotiator between APNU and the Alliance For Change (AFC) in coalition discussions that eventually collapsed.
Explaining his decision to step aside, Norton said, “I have no intention of running for the presidency in the future. My task now is repairing the party for the future and making way for fresh blood.”
The official results from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) confirmed WIN as the new main opposition, securing 16 seats, including flipping APNU’s stronghold of Region 10. APNU and AFC, which together held 31 seats in the last parliament, saw their representation drastically reduced.
Meanwhile, Forward Guyana Movement (FGM), led by former APNU parliamentarian Amanza Walton-Desir, captured one seat.
The PPP/C maintained its dominance, winning 36 of the 65 parliamentary seats and securing a strong mandate to govern for another five years.