Amid skepticism and risk, will WIN break into traditional voting blocks?

Last Updated on Wednesday, 20 August 2025, 18:54 by Denis Chabrol

Guyana’s general and regional elections, carded for September 1, 2025, are turning out to be quite unorthodox as mainly Afro-Guyanese and Amerindians seem prepared to turn their backs on customary voting patterns.

Even with his weighty baggage of US sanctions over the alleged export of over 10,000 kilogrammes of gold for which US$50 million in taxes are owed to the Guyana government, Azruddin Mohamed, 38, is appealing to people across the political divide. “I was PNC and they do nothing for we,” an elderly woman said.

Mr Mohamed constantly shows off videos and pictures among fairly large gatherings in Afro-, Indo-Guyanese and Amerindian communities. People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) insiders say they’re targeting a 34-seat victory in the 65-seat National Assembly but realistically, the polls can produce a return of Ali as president without a simple parliamentary majority to pass laws and the budget unless there are negotiations.

Once a close Islamic buddy of sitting President Irfaan Ali for whom Mr Mohamed had provided armed security and even a bullet proof vehicle during the 2020 election campaign and right up to his swearing in, the two now seem bitter enemies. Dr Ali spares no moment in belching out caustic reminders to party faithful that Mr Mohamed is an alleged tax cheat, has no policies and must not be taken seriously.

Now stripped of his licences to trade in foreign currency and gold and barred from doing business with the Ali-led PPPC administration because of the US sanctions, the motor racing enthusiast has been thrust on to the fast lane of political rough-and-tumble by ruling party General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo. He seizes almost every opportunity in hammering into his supporters’ heads at public meetings that the young billionaire politician is trying to escape the long arm of the law here and in the US.

In a rare explanation of the break-up between the Mohameds and the government, Attorney General Anil Nandlall told a public meeting on the Essequibo Island of Leguan on Tuesday night that it all started because the Guyana government could do nothing to save the businessman and his father, Nazar “Shell” Mohamed without the risk of the country facing sanctions. “We said ‘no, you are sanctioned. We done wid you’ and because of that, that is what you see. They have no plan to develop the country,” said Mr Nandlall. “This gentleman is only doing this because he was advised by his lawyers in America that if you enter the political fray, it will make it a little more difficult for the law enforcement agencies to come after you because he can say that they are politically persecuting him,” he added.

That alarm bell is clearly echoing across the usually impervious political divide among the diehard A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and PPP supporters. “He come to take he self out from wah he deh in,” said one vendor as he waved an APNU campaign jersey in front of a vociferous woman who said she once backed the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), APNU’s parent party. “I was PNC and they do nothing for we,” she said as she showed off her campaign jersey.

Former Working People’s Alliance General Secretary and APNUA+AFC parliamentarian, Tabita Sarabo-Halley quickly parted the two grassroots opponents from what could have turned out to be more than a passing physical encounter.

By far the least eloquent politician who has stepped foot on Guyana’s election stage in recent times, somehow Mr Mohamed is using his calm demeanour and apparent empathy to woo many average Guyanese who yearn for fatter pockets, houses, better roads, healthcare and education. As Ms Sarabo-Halley apparently muttered within Mr Mohamed’s earshot while he responded to reporters’ questions, he exuded confidence that he will win the upcoming polls because of countrywide support. “Full support in Georgetown…We already pull it off,” he said.

If there is one thing that the PPP-Civic and its main rival, APNU, have in common it is that Mr Mohamed and his We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) must be kept at arms length. APNU election campaigners are sounding a skeptical tone, even warning that Mohamed and the PPP will quickly patch up things after the polls. APNU presidential candidate Aubrey Norton recently hinted that Mohamed is targeting his supporters. In the decision-making offices of Congress Place, the PNCR’s headquarters, they are flagging Mohamed.

On the streets of Georgetown, a traditional PNCR-APNU stronghold, Afro-Guyanese seem willing to give Mohamed, an Indo-Guyanese, a chance. Clearly disenchanted by APNU and the PPP, a woman made it clear that she is willing to give the businessman and political unknown an opportunity to occupy the seat of power. “We want change. No more green. No more red,” she said, referring to APNU and PPP main party colours. Another woman chimed in, “We gave them (APNU) a chance and what they do? Fail us!”

However, there are diehard PNC supporters who have no faith and care very little about Mohamed’s political antics. They say he was in bed with the PPP and part of a machinery that suppressed Afro-Guyanese. “The same man had we in bondage, is the same people saying they come to take you out of bondage. Free you up from wah,” the APNU supporter as the WIN party leader mingled with Stabroek Market vendors and shoppers on Water Street.

“Green is it! You got to like yuhself before yuh like anybody else. Why you believe I wearing green? Because I isn’t a scrape,” the middle-aged vendor said. Underprivileged youths, a number of them deviants, describe themselves or are regarded as “Scrape” or “scrape-head”.

The WIN leader declined to name his prime ministerial candidate, fearing that that the PPP will fiercely attack that person. “I don’t want more victimisation from Irfaan Ali and Bharrat Jagdeo. Trust me, that’s the main reason,” he said.

The PPP and APNU continue to chalk up overwhelmingly larger turnouts at rallies compared to WIN, but the incumbent’s crowds on the coastland are more racially diverse.