Claims by leaders of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) that the party “won” a resounding victory at the Local Government Elections (LGE), are being challenged by former PNC Member of Parliament (MP) James Bond.
In a statement on his social media account, Bond urged his fellow PNC supporters not to fall prey to claims by the PNCR leadership – claims that have been primarily advanced by party leader Aubrey Norton, that the LGE results were a success for the PNC.
Norton has downplayed PNC’s results from the elections, even though the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) won 66 out of 80 Local Authority Areas.
According to Bond, who has been vocal in saying that the party has nothing to celebrate, the party must be brave enough to take stock of what the results mean for the PNC.
“To my fellow PNC supporters if any leader tells you that this LGE was a success for us tell them they are delusional and they are liars. Do not let another leader lie to you. Time to be honest, time to change the culture of politics.”
“It is high time we are brave enough to see what’s wrong, find a solution and fix the problem. We are going to change the culture! We are not going to be cowards!” Bond further said in his social media post.
Interestingly enough, outgoing Mayor of Georgetown and PNC Member Ubraj Narine could be seen expressing agreement with Bond on the post.
Meanwhile, one time Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources Simona Broomes also released a video in which she urged the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to release the results in a timely manner. But she also railed against the PNCR leader for the slow release of the party’s own preliminary results.
“Bharrat (Jagdeo) talks about he preliminary, he preliminary. Where is Aubrey Norton? Where [are your] preliminaries? You can’t come out and say about your preliminary and so too man? [You all] get me vex. What about your preliminaries? You have Statements of Poll!” Broomes said.
So far, the PPP has won the majority votes in seven of the country’s ten townships in a move that party’s General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo, has described as a “wipeout” of the APNU. These townships include Mabaruma, Anna Regina, Rose Hall, Corriverton, Lethem, Bartica and Mahdia.
Moreover, Jagdeo told a press conference on Tuesday that based on the party’s calculations, the PPP also won the popular vote in 66 of the 80 Local Authority Areas (LAAs) at this year’s Local Government polls.
He explained that the PPP outright won 62 but tied in four areas. In the tied areas, however, the party won the popular vote which would mean that, based on convention, its representative would get the chairmanship position. In contrast, Jagdeo explained that APNU only won 14 LAAs, a decrease from the 23 it had won in 2018.
