2025 General and Regional Elections: Cash-strapped APNU rationing resources on campaign trail – Norton admits

With the 2025 elections approaching, the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is reportedly ‘rationing’ campaign resources amid mounting financial constraints.
Amid a visibly scaled-back campaign presence, Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton has confirmed that the APNU is deliberately rationing resources during the 2025 General and Regional Election season, choosing what he described as “strategy over spectacle”.

General and regional elections are set for September 1, and already, political parties have kickstarted their campaigns across the country.
The APNU on July 6 officially launched its campaign, an event that has since been described as “lukewarm” and lacking in attendance, especially among the youth population.
Since then, the party has held several rallies and public meetings, including in Bartica, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), and in Melanie, on the East Coast of Demerara.
In an appearance Monday night on the GlobeSpan24X7 programme, Norton addressed growing public concern over APNU’s low visual and ground presence in traditional PPP strongholds. The long-time politician brushed off claims of campaign weakness, asserting, “We don’t have the resources like PPP, but we are campaigning, just strategically.”
“If you peak too early in an election and you don’t have the resources your opponents have, then they will come back and counter,” Norton stated. “So, you have to time it and ensure you go straight through and impact as you move along.”

Signs of a frugal fight
While PPP rallies continue to dominate the visual and media landscape with billboards, banners, full-blown concerts and high-tech productions, APNU’s approach has been visibly more muted. Norton’s remarks come as party supporters ’express frustration with the absence of flags, campaign posters, and mass mobilisation efforts in several parts of the country.
The Opposition Leader admitted to “banners going up near the Demerara Harbour Bridge” but emphasised that the party “will only roll out material at the right time.”
Despite the party’s quieter campaign, Norton revealed that since assuming leadership, many disillusioned youths have returned to the party, some of whom had left during the David Granger era. While he did not provide data, he described this resurgence as “a quiet but meaningful shift” in APNU’s voter base.
However, any alleged increase in youth participants comes at a time when several prominent PNC youth leaders have exited the PNC and either joined the PPP campaign or endorsed President Ali for a second term. The most recent is MP Jermaine Figueira.
Figueira, who served 10 years in Parliament and chaired the Public Accounts Committee, has also urged voters to think critically and act responsibly, emphasising the need to “vote with intelligence”, placing country above partisan politics.
Against this backdrop, he offered his full endorsement and active support to President Ali’s re-election campaign.
Among those persons who have recently come forward to endorse the PPP are former People’s National Congress (PNC) General Secretary and Opposition Parliamentarian Geeta Chandan-Edmond; Alliance For Change (AFC) Regional Councillor Ismail Muhammad-Al-Cush; and Chairman of the Region Seven division of the AFC, David Daniels.
Additionally, Regional Vice Chairman for Region Four and member of the PNC, Samuel Sandy, has endorsed the PPP. He joined Executive Member of the PNCR and Region Four Chairman Daniel Seeram, who also endorsed President Ali for a second term.
Former PNCR Central Executive member, Dr Richard Van West-Charles, said he believed that President Ali was the leader Guyana needed now. Dr Van West-Charles is the son-in-law of former President and founder of the PNC, Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham.
In April, former PNC member Thandi McAllister also threw her support behind the PPP/C.
In 2023, Lance Smith, former General Secretary of the Guyana Youth and Student Movement (GYSM), the youth arm of the PNCR, and former Georgetown Mayor and longstanding PNC member Patricia Chase-Green broke ties with the PNC and joined the PPP to contest the local government elections.
Additionally, leaders of smaller parties, The Citizenship Initiative (TCI), Shaz Ally; The New Movement (TNM), Dr Asha Kissoon; and the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), Lenox Shuman, have also joined the PPP ahead of the 2025 General and Regional Elections.