Leader of the Opposition Aubrey Norton said that President Irfaan Ali appeared “out of the blue” and bullied him into a handshake at the British High Commission’s birthday reception for Queen Elizabeth last Thursday.
Norton added that he deliberately refused to shake the President’s hand as a form of protest over the government’s management of the country.
President Ali and Norton were at the residence of the British High Commissioner to Guyana Jane Miller when the encounter occurred. Urging Norton, who initially snubbed the request for a handshake to put aside their differences, Ali said that as mature adults there should be no place for “pettiness”.