Azruddin Mohamed hints at contesting 2025 elections

Last Updated on Sunday, 30 March 2025, 9:49 by Writer

City businessman Azruddin Mohamed, who has been sanctioned by the United States (US) for alleged tax evasion on gold exports, has for the first time hinted that he would be vying in the 2025 general and regional elections, even as President Irfaan Ali on Saturday warned People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) supporters to be vigilant against proxies for the opposition People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) and the Alliance For Change.

“The first thing is I haven’t even launched out as yet so how can I beg persons to vote for me. I want to make this clear that I am not aligned with any political party. I am not aligned with the PPP. I am not aligned with the PNC. I am not aligned with the AFC. It is clear I can stand alone and defeat them any day,” he said at a community outreach at Edinburgh, East Bank Berbice. He referred to a scientific poll without providing details.

Dr Ali’s position on Saturday suggested that Mr Mohamed was politicking for the PNCR and AFC. “It is deception, and that is what we are warning you about – the deceptive nature of what is taking place,” he told a public meeting at La Grange, West Bank Demerara. He suggested that a businessman, who he identified as Azruddin, was being facilitated, organised, and promoted by the Alliance For Change and the PNCR.

Mr Azruddin took aim at PPP General Secretary and Guyana’s 2nd Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, saying that during his tenure many persons were killed.

Responding to Mr Jagdeo’s assertion that people were turning out to see Mr Mohamed’s car or receive money or a house, Mr Azruddin said he could arrive on foot, bicycle or in a taxi and the “turnout will be a mammoth crowd”.

Mr Mohamed — a one-time ally of Dr Ali until he was slapped with sanctions by the United States in June 2024 for alleged tax evasion on gold exports — has been attracting support from pockets of Afro- and Indo-Guyanese. That has prompted PPPC supporters to come face-to-face with Mr Mohamed, even waving placards that are identical to Dr Ali’s comments on Saturday.

The President said the PPP would not tolerate violations of the law. “If your choice is to go contrary to the laws or if your choice is to avoid legitimate responsibility of taxes in your country, then the system must deal with you. This is not a political issue and that cannot be what your party, the People’s Progressive Party, stands for,” he said without naming Azruddin. Dr Ali had acknowledged previously enjoying a close relationship with the Mohameds dating back to his secondary school days when he and others once walked across from St Stanislaus College to the Mohameds’ premises on Lombard Street for Muslim prayers. The Mohameds had loaned one of their vehicles for Dr Ali’s use as President of Guyana shortly after he was sworn into office in August 2020.

Except for his father, Nazar “Shell” Mohamed, saying that the sanctions by the US Treasury Department’s Office for Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) have affected his businesses in Guyana, Mr Azruddin has not addressed that issue. The elder Mohamed is on record as saying that he had provided financial support to the PPP and assisted in then party leader, Dr Cheddi Jagan returning to office in 1992.

Increasingly, the younger Mohamed has been openly critical of the PPPC administration, in particular Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, accusing him of setting the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and police on him. “He planning every single day to bring me down,”, he said.

Attorney General, Anil Nandlall earlier this week said the US, at the request of the Guyana government, had provided a volume of information that led to the sanctions. He said the GRA and the Police Force were using the information to take action against the Mohameds.