The APNU’s alternative facts will eventually lead to PNC’s demise

Dear Editor,
I sat at a home at Success, East Coast Demerara as the results poured in for the June 12, 2023 local government elections which were held on Monday. Despite both sides claiming victory that night, I – like thousands of Guyanese – waited on the results from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
The results showed that Guyanese voted resoundingly for the People’s Progressive Civic (PPP/C), and rejected the Peoples National Congress Reform-led A Partnership for National Unity (PNC/R-APNU).
I think the ruling PPP/C must be overjoyed after making major breakthroughs in the PNC/R-APNU stronghold communities and towns, such as Bartica, Lethem, New Amsterdam, and in the Plaisance to Industry NDC. I think the biggest and most surprising area where the PPP/C made inroads was in the Georgetown communities. The PPP had double times the votes they had in 2015 and 2018, thereby achieving eleven seats in Georgetown, seven out of 10 Towns, and 66 other NDC and LAAs. I think this is good political work, with structured planning.
Now is the time to celebrate every victory made by the PPP/C campaign and “One Guyana” mantra. I believe that most, if not all, of Guyana is on board for progress, development, and growth to continue changing the face of Guyana for the better.
Sadly, Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton appears defeated, even as he seeks to spread his usual alternative facts. I was not only surprised, but was in shock, because I could not believe it when he said that his party was victorious in the face of the very clear and undisputed GECOM results that were in the public domain by the next day of the local government elections.
Much to my annoyance and disbelief, Norton held out that the results were a rejection of the PPP/C and endorsement of the APNU. Something is wrong with the mind of any person who tries to twist the reality and figures of these polls. Something must be wrong with the APNU supporters and those who believe APNU’s alternative facts and half-truths that they spewed at press conferences and on social media.
I have compiled a dossier of lies and deceptive or alternative facts that Norton, other Opposition MPs, and the political Opposition commentators were using to get votes or make sure their supporters stayed with them. No less than 127 lies have to date been told by the APNU for the period of local government elections.
I have found the APNU and their political allies, particularly Cathy Hughes, Christopher Jones, former President David Granger, Ubraj Narine and Derron Adams, told blatant lies 73 times to the public; and further, have no integrity and moral standing with me and many of the voters.
Using and knowing the truth, the APNU used the whisper and race campaign to hold back the PPP/C from totally winning their strongholds in many of the places in Bartica, Linden, Kwakwani, New Amsterdam, Georgetown and other communities. We are big, but not stupid! We might even be slow, but we know Mathematics and can count! We know when Norton is bluffing his way like a Cheshire Cat. This is not Alice in Wonderland. This is Guyana, and it is real!
Norton should know that I am not buying the garbage and nonsense he is peddling, choosing to hide from the shameful facts by saying ‘a team is analysing the statistics. Again he is being a propagandist who hides the effect of thrashing behind alternative facts, like Donald Trump did with the figures of his second inauguration, and the fact that he lost the elections to President Joe Biden.
I would respect him if he just accepted a defeat at the polls following the results which were declared by GECOM, but he continuously denies losing, and is insulting the public’s intelligence.
Conclusively, APNU lost the overall election when they decided they did not have money to compete with the PPP in all LAAs, NDC areas, Towns, and Municipalities. They lost again to the PPP/C on Nominations Day, as they allowed the Red Wave to take over while they had no support from MPs and a few bigwigs. They lost time and time over in the informal campaign debate that was taking place in the lead-up to the polls. Now they have suffered a humiliating, painful, and massive defeat at the polls. And, that’s Norton’s legacy, apart from the peddling of alternative facts, mistruths, and race-baiting and discrimination.
Norton is the only Opposition Leader who has had infighting and political fires happen so often from the time he ran in the PNC to right now. Is this the end of the PNC’s legacy and its demise as a once-trusted political unit? I hope not, but in American literature, a poem called “The Masque of Pandora” (1875) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow has a character named Prometheus, who speaks the phrase: Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.
A string of madness, a false sense of consciousness, and political blindness are running through APNU’s and Norton’s minds. I believe one must know when to go. The people have spoken and voted for the PPP/C. Now resign and retire quietly. Withdraw and save face!

Yours truly,
Michael Younge