Dear Editor,
On Sunday 6th July, we witnessed another manifestation of the leader of a party vainly trying to whip up some support from his party loyalists. Sunday’s meeting saw the PNC Leader trying his utmost, to first convince himself, then, try to gain the trust of those his supporters.
It is an uphill task for Mr. Norton, and one in which history would not be so kind to him.
In the first place, Norton is having great difficulty holding together what is left of a badly divided party, which caused him to openly say, he is willing to step aside and let someone else lead. And step aside he should because, in his egotistical, autocratic style he has supervised over the routing of key stalwarts from the party.
The irreparable damage Norton has caused is sure to take a drastic effect on his performance this election.
Those that have stuck with him are not fit and proper to face a dwindling party crowd, much more to save the party’s image. The point is, in a more intelligent, and politically astute Guyanese landscape, The PNC is caught flat-footed. No more can a Norton, or anyone else in that remnant pack, sway a crowd or be charismatic enough to give the black support base an assurance that they are an alternative to the PPP/C; it is not going to happen!
While Norton is assured of a firm base of party diehards, that is those above upwards of 60 years, the younger and more politically astute crowd are prone to gravitate to either A PPP/C camp or a Team Mohammed’s. The latter team seems to be making huge inroads in PNC strongholds.
The debate is on as to how many seats Mohammed would steal from an APNU support base? And the answer seems to be in the single digit of 5 seats, which would see a vastly reduced PNC in parliament. Some are of the liberal view that the PNC would only be able to put together a paltry 20 seats. Only time will tell the irretrievable place this man has placed his party into.
However, Norton is not be perturbed with Mohammed gaining votes, he would have liked those votes coming from the PPP/C’s base and the end result being a rehash of 2011 where this country was saddled with a minority PPP/C Government.
But from all appearances that theory cannot see its fulfilment, as the PNC’s lost is attributed to a PPP/C’s gain. We look forward to a highly anticipated election season.
