LAST week, Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton surfaced and gave the media corps an alarming dose of his delusion about the just-concluded 2025 election, and the selection of PNC MPs for the 13th Parliament.
Norton said that there were certain developments which took place during the polls that his party did not anticipate or were not adequately prepared for. He said that there was a lot of money that went into the 2025 elections. He claimed that the other parties were bribing and inducing the voters in open violation of election rules. He even said that at Linden, one political party was buying bicycles and votes.
Norton blamed “rigging” for the PNC-led APNU’s poor performance and loss of support in certain areas. The opposition leader said he was proud of the APNU’s team and the manifesto. He defended them right through the press conference.
Similarly, he did not feel obligated to give any explanation to the probing media for his decisions on MPs but insisted that he chose who met the criteria that were established. Norton said that Dr Terrence Campbell was selected to lead APNU’s team in the parliament and that he was a member of the party at the time of selection. He remained tight-lipped specifically about snubbing Christopher Jones, Shurwayne Holder and many others from being chosen to go to parliament.
In Norton’s world, he is now going to focus on building the PNC back and restoring the public’s confidence in his party. He said he was not for sale during the 2025 elections and has integrity. Anyone who listens and watches the press conference will drown in a sea of laughter, surprise, and shock. Norton is delusional and may still be stuck on planet Mars if he thinks he is making political sense of his loss at the polls.
Maybe pride and his ego do not allow him to come to grips with reality. The truth is, Norton is being ‘a big crybaby’ whose parents should bring him a comforter. Maybe Norton should go back into hiding to grieve his loss. After all, people have the right to grieve, and some Guyanese grieve differently.
Some go into their mental faculties and make up the perfect scenario that justifies the loss that they experienced. Then, they internalise it before settling on why they lost and did not win. They truly believe the lie and fabrication.
This is a dramatic episode called a delusional disorder. It is a mental health illness and is a serious condition classified as a psychosis.
Firstly, Norton needs to withdraw from the limelight and seek out help if he is, in fact, suffering from a delusional disorder. Norton’s beliefs on the elections are not based in reality, and there is a treasure trove of evidence to the contrary. And what is serious about this delusion is that Norton lies with a straight face.
Here are the facts and the truth. Firstly, Norton’s rise to political power came at a time when the PNC needed someone to lead it and someone to comfort it after David Granger lost power in 2020 and was highly unpopular with the PNC grassroots base. Norton offered himself up and was reluctantly accepted. Reluctantly, because he had no prior leadership in senior decisions.
From day one, Norton was butting heads with the old PNC guards like Joseph Harmon, Amna Ally and other personalities in the party. He was to create unity and togetherness, but created division and disunity instead.
He flexed his political power and reshaped the opposition party, redefining Forbes Burnham’s legacy of trying to behave like a dictator and hiding behind the word democracy. When resourceful party people left, he recruited other unknowns. In the PNC Congress last year, he bullied and foisted himself into the leadership and presidential posts.
He did the same in the APNU+AFC political Coalition, causing it to break. Norton got a desperate relic named David Hinds from the WPA to join him. Neither of them or Juretha Fernandes stood any chance against Mohamed Irfaan Ali.
And instead of heeding the thunderous warning, they went ahead and lost the elections, and badly. Now, instead of removing himself politically, he schemes to both control the PNC and APNU MPs through Terrence Campbell, who is his puppet. Campbell will be Norton’s undoing in the end because the PNC Congress and members do not support him.
Secondly, a lot of money went into the 2025 elections, but it was how it was presented to the public by Norton. It was a couple of reasons why so much money and effort went into the elections. The stakes were high for all the parties contesting, even the PNC-led APNU, which is $83 million poorer after Norton sold its Republic Bank shares during the elections to try and keep up.
Each party has made bribery and vote-buying allegations against the other, but one has faced the largess – WIN and Mohamed. But, even after WIN and the PPP courted all the Regions away from PNC, even Linden, Norton is still not saying anything bad or criticising Mohamed and WIN. He can’t actually say his name and comes to the public, in all his delusions and lies, with claims of rigging and unfairness.
He suddenly thinks of campaign financing laws and stricter election laws, but shied away from disclosing honestly how much his party spent, and how much financial resources came from Nazar and Azruddin Mohamed into either his or PNC coffers.
Anyway, if he was paid, it would only be by WIN cause the PPP/C knew from day one that they would beat Norton into a pulp. In any case, Norton believes that he lost because of money. Really? That is what he is doing? The public can see bouts of delusion!
Thirdly, Norton has proven to be the most polarising opposition figure since Hamilton Green and Forbes Burnham. Therefore, if an opposition politician does not want to tow his line, he will eliminate the offending politician. He is petty, grudgeful and wicked. Norton likes to settle scores, so snubbing Jones and Holder come naturally. It is the same for all of his political enemies.
Campbell and Dexter Todd will surely be at the mercy of Norton politics. They will feel the polarising temperature of opposition politics. Finally, Norton should continue to hide his face and spare the public the agony of having to see or listen to a press conference again. The public deserves better, and Norton should prioritise his mental health.
If he is not ‘delulu’, then he is a cunning man or con artiste. For the public, it is hard to watch the PNC implode and even harder to see its leader having bouts of delusion right in their face. They know the truth.
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.