On Tuesday, 12 May 2026, People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) and opposition bloc A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) leader Aubrey Norton pushed back against growing concerns over the party’s ongoing exodus of members, after the ruling People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) announced the defection of seven current and former opposition-aligned politicians.
The seven new PPPC recruits include three former APNU+AFC Members of Parliament: Rickly Ramsaroop, Shurwayne Holder, and Dinesh Jaiprashad, plus four sitting regional councillors: Ravoldo Birbal, Sheik Yaseen, Prince Holder, and Gangadai Lloyd. Shurwayne Holder, a former PNCR Chairman, had openly signaled his dissatisfaction with the party after being excluded from APNU’s 2025 parliamentary slate following September’s general and regional elections, while Ramsaroop had already split from coalition partner Alliance For Change (AFC) in mid-2025 before briefly aligning with PNCR-led APNU.
In comments to Demerara Waves Online News, Norton framed the latest departures as an expected outcome that did not catch him off guard. “Everybody is free to go to whichever political party they want to go but even Stevie Wonder would have seen that that group was preparing to go to the PPP from the time most of them weren’t seeming to become members of parliament,” he noted. When pressed on whether he had detected disloyalty ahead of candidate nominations, he declined to speculate, saying that leaders can never fully predict the decisions of their members.
This latest wave of defections is part of a years-long trend that has seen more than a dozen opposition politicians leave PNCR and APNU for either the ruling PPPC or the new opposition bloc We Invest in Nationhood. Over less than five years, high-profile departures to the PPPC include James Bond, Jermaine Figueira, Geeta Chandan-Edmond, Richard Van West Charles, Daniel Seeram, and Samuel Sandy, while three other former members have taken executive roles with the new opposition grouping.
Addressing questions about how he will stem further departures, Norton acknowledged that sustained opposition status naturally creates this type of challenge for political parties. “When you’re in opposition for a while that happens. Don’t forget when we were in government- the PNC- many PPP people came and, of course, there are two different things. There is a difference between going to a political party based on principle and ideology and going for whatever personal reasons. You can’t stop people from going for their personal reasons,” he explained.
Norton rejected criticism that the steady “bleeding” of the party is a failure of his leadership, noting that all leadership tenures face challenges. He pushed back against claims he should be held responsible for the defection of figures like former Region Four Chairman Daniel Seeram, saying many of the departing politicians were not selected by him for their current roles. “There are many people I didn’t choose that went so it’s a reality you have to face. We will just continue to organise ourselves and move forward,” he said.
When asked if he was disappointed by the defection of young, rising politician Ravoldo Birbal, in whom he had previously expressed confidence, Norton described Birbal as young and inexperienced, framing his departure as a predictable outcome for less seasoned political actors.
The PPPC’s announcement of the new defections came just one day after former PNCR central executive member Dr. Aubrey Armstrong warned the opposition that it risked losing more supporters if it failed to address the needs of its base. During a commemorative lecture for former PNCR Leader and President Desmond Hoyte, Armstrong urged the party: “You have to take care of your people. You have to find ways of feeding them and so on. If not, you open the door for somebody else to poach them.”
In its official statement announcing the new recruits, the PPPC said the seven politicians requested a meeting with the party’s General Secretary to formalize their shift in affiliation. The group told PPPC leadership they wanted to contribute to Guyana’s ongoing period of unprecedented economic growth and modernization, while advancing the public interest. They praised the ruling party’s open, inclusive governance style, its successful implementation of its policy manifesto, and the tangible improvements it has delivered to communities across the country. The defectors also highlighted the PPPC’s effective economic stewardship, its commitment to inclusive governance that serves all Guyanese regardless of identity, and its proven capacity to sustain national growth.
Notably, the four sitting regional councillors who have switched affiliation cannot be recalled from their posts under current Guyanese electoral law, as no existing statute allows list representatives to remove sitting elected regional councillors after they have taken office.