Insisting that the Peoples National Congress (PNC) is superior to the other parties it has coalesced with in the past, leader Aubrey Norton revealed that the political grouping is considering contesting the 2025 General and Regional Elections independently.
“In politics, you never say ‘no’. You have to analyse the situation, and as it emerges, you make the decisions. We are open to coalition, but we are a strong enough party that if we have to go [on our own], we can do that,” Norton disclosed in response to a direct question about the PNC contesting independently.
The PNC leader was at the time participating during a live interview on a local radio station.
Norton, himself recently re-elected to serve as PNC leader, revealed that he is interested in commencing discussions with newly-elected leader of the Alliance For Change, Nigel Hughes.
“I think we must,” he said when asked directly if he will be engaged with Hughes.
“I don’t see no reason why we shouldn’t. I’m prepared to talk with anybody,” the PNC leader said.
The A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), whose largest member is the PNC, had merged with the AFC in 2015 for the elections that year. The two parties had also jointly contested in the 2020 elections.
The AFC, however, formally broke its coalition with APNU back in December 2022. The revised Cummingsburg Accord, a political agreement between the two organisations, had provided for this separation. At the time, former AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan had indicated that the two political organisations would do their political work separately but work in parliament jointly.
Meanwhile, though the APNU – which comprises of smaller parties – had recently hosted internal elections and booted Norton as its chairman, the PNC Leader is insisting he still remains leader of the APNU coalition.
“I am still the chairman,” Norton insisted.
“If you have a political movement, and one section of the movement has 90% of the votes. In the APNU, the only political party that can claim to have ever gained significant votes to form a government is the PNCR,” Norton added.
On another note, the PNC had passed a motion supporting that its leader be the presidential candidate at the 2025 polls but Norton said he is willing to step aside.
However, he explained that any new presidential candidate must be someone from within the PNC – should the party decide to contest as an APNU coalition.
“Which political party will have more than 90% of the support of the Opposition [and] will give its power to 5% or 10%? It makes no sense. So when I speak of a consensual candidate, I speak of a consensual candidate as it relates to the PNC. I don’t see us as a political party giving to a party that has never in this country gotten 15% of the votes.”
