THE PNC released Aubrey Norton’s address to the party on the recent general election that is a sad reflection on the fading of perhaps one of the longest serving activists in the PNC – Norton himself.

The speech is characterised by so much absurdities that it highlights the inability of Norton to understand the country he lives in and his persistence in insulting the Guyanese nation.
Mr. Norton asserted that the election was not free and fair. He will embarrass himself if he is asked to describe how the configuration of a flawed process resulted in the WIN party taking 16 seats from the PNC.

Surely, if the logistics were faulty then the ruling party should have taken those 16 seats. But the PPP got three more seats from 2020 and WIN got 16 after being just three months in politics.
The esoteric dimension that Norton will find impossible to explain is why this unfair election did not benefit the ruling party in an excessive way but instead the excesses were in favour of WIN.
Norton is under intense obligation to elaborate on this to his party. Every Guyanese will want to hear how a contorted election allowed WIN to become the main opposition in parliament.
Norton referred to the bloated list which had over 700,000 names. But a bloated list has no relation to voting as we see in Guyana and other CARICOM nations.
Way below 700,000 people voted. Of those numbers on the register of voters, only 438,467 cast ballots down from 460,352 in 2020 when the PNC again cried about a bloated list. In this election 22,000 persons compared to the 2020 did not go into the polling booth.

Mr. Norton belongs to yesterday’s politics and his divorce from the reality of a changing Guyana makes him treat the Guyanese people with disdain. How can the PNC tell a nation that the general election was not above board using the same linguistics in 2020 that made it look foolish in the eyes of the world and for which it became unpopular and untrustworthy?
The bulk of the African population does not believe the APNU+AFC won the 2020 contest and almost 100 percent of African Guyanese knows that the PNC lost to WIN.
For Norton to tell the Guyanese people that the election was not fair makes him look terrible in the eyes of PNC supporters who are blaming him for the devastation on September 1. Why would you want to look even more pathetic by shouting out that you were cheated and you want fresh elections?

In his address, Norton goes back 60 years in time to quote Burnham to make his continuation as leader look plausible. He referred to the loss of the 1961 election by the PNC when Burnham addressed PNC supporters at Bourda Green and asked his supporters: “Will you not watch with me for another hour.” Norton then asked the current PNC supporters the same question.
Norton is living in the past. The Guyana that saw Burnham lose the 1961 election is a completely different Guyana in 2025. In 1961, Burnham and Jagan were almost neck and neck. The PPP got 93,085 votes against the PNC’s 89,501.

The PPP obtained 42.63 percent of the votes, the PNC received 40.99. Burnham had reason for asking his supporters to stay another hour with him because he was saying that he barely lost.
In 2025, the PNC is no powerful giant as it was in 1961. In 1961, the PNC was a strong party with talent leaders. In 2025, the PNC has been degutted and was displaced by an organisation that is just three months old. There is no reason then for PNC supporters to spend one more hour with Norton.

Finally, Norton spoke about the strategy of space which turned out to be ironic. He said the PNC went into the 2025 election to use the political space that is there for the PNC to do what is required of it. But having brought up the factor of space Norton now puts himself in a difficult position to explain.

The space that belonged to the PNC since 1957 and that was a priceless gem for the PNC and that allowed the PNC to maintain its biology for 68 years has decreased so swiftly that it calls into question if any space will be left by the time the 2030 election comes around.

When a gigantic, historic, electoral party is devastated by a three-month-old rival with no party structure, no party head office no pool of talent and a lackluster leader without any experience whatsoever, then Norton has to explain this to the PNC. He must.

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.