PPP, APNU intensify campaign against WIN

Last Updated on Sunday, 24 August 2025, 13:57 by Writer

As Guyanese prepare to vote in general elections just days away, the main opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) are waging campaigns against the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party.

WIN has been pulling attendees from segments of APNU’s traditional Afro-Guyanese base, and the PPP’s Indo-Guyanese and Amerindian supporters.

The latest warnings against WIN were made Saturday night at separate political meetings held by the country’s two major political parties as Guyana inches closer to election day, September 1.

At stake are the presidency, 65 seats in the National Assembly and seats on the 10 regional councils.

Retired Deputy Police Commissioner Dr Paul Williams told a meeting at Hopetown, West Coast Berbice that they could not afford to risk Guyana’s future with WIN led by Azruddin Mohamed who was sanctioned by the United States in June 2024 for alleged tax evasion on gold exports. Dr Williams urged residents of the APNU stronghold not to “gamble” with their votes. He advised supporters against splitting their votes in favour of WIN because that party would not win the upcoming election. “You can’t take chances with win at this time. WIN cannot win so if our intention is for APNU to win this election, you cannot take chances with nobody else,” he said. Dr Williams

He warned attendees against voting for the PPP in the form of WIN. “When the leader of WIN come out from the PPP and he go to form WIN, what you gonna get?…This is clear, we supposed to see this,” he said.

APNU’s Vinceroy Jordon questioned where Mr Mohamed was when Joel and Isaiah Henry, Quindon Bacchus and Orin Boston were murdered. “I announce to you tonight that Azruddin was in the belly of the wicked, stink and dutty People’s Progressive Party Civic and I dare say to you tonight…I still believe is right there in the heart of the beast so a vote for Azruddin is a vote for the People’s Progressive Party Civic. Don’t make that mistake,” said Mr Jordon who is also Vice Chairman of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), APNU’s parent party.

APNU in recent days has embarked on an even more targeted onslaught against Mr Mohamed, even saying that if he wins the upcoming polls, that the alleged tax evader and “ruthless capitalist” would not fairly and equitably distribute Guyana’s wealth and would run the country even “worse” than the PPP. “You can expect not necessarily the same, as the PPP, but worse,” the supporter said in a video on APNU’s page. He also cautioned that voting for the other small parties instead of APNU would result in a PPPC victory.

The WIN leader is on record as promising not to align his party with the PNCR or PPP, but would lend his parliamentary support to either side only if it is in the interest of Guyana. Aware of WIN’s plot to reduce the PPP’s parliamentary seats and so create a minority government, the PPP has repeatedly assured that that “will not happen”.

PPP Executive Committee member, Anil Nandlall told a meeting on the Essequibo Island of Leguan that Azruddin Mohamed and his family members have retaliated against the PPP because the government refused to “help them” from the sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). “We said ‘no, you’re sanctioned. We done with you’ and comrades, it is because of that, that is what you see. They have no plan to develop the country because he can say they’re politically persecuting him,” he said. The Attorney General said Mr Mohamed opted to contest the elections because he was advised by his lawyers that doing so would make it a “a little more difficult” for the law enforcement agencies to go after him.

The WIN leader maintained that he opted to contest the 2025 general and regional elections because of the “cries” of the poor people instead of disagreements with President Irfaan Ali. Asked if he would have still run for the presidency if he was not sanctioned by the U.S., he said since 2019-2020 persons had called him the President of Guyana, he said, “This is all about working with the people to empower the lives of the people. This is in my DNA. From small growing up, my father and my mother instilled these qualities in me.”

Mr Nandlall, earlier in his address warned residents of that farming-dependent traditional PPP stronghold against voting for any other political party. “We cannot afford to waste a single vote” in what would be the most important elections since Guyana gained independence from Britain 59 years ago. “If we make a single error, if we become careless, if we become complacent; we are on this precipice and any slippage can cause everything that we are poised to achieve to become elusive,” he said.

The PPP is banking on what it says are more Afro-Guyanese supporters in this election to cruise home to victory, largely due to empowerment through the award of small contracts.

Among the Amerindians, the PPP said it is Guyana’s “biggest Amerindian party” that has delivered a raft of benefits to their communities and included them in the decision-making body of that party.

The WIN leader dismissed repeated signals by PPP General Secretary and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo that he could face the criminal justice system for a number of offences. “I’m not worried. Why should I be worried? I’m not a criminal. Why should I be worried. They just want to paint a bad picture of me. That’s all,” he said.

Mr Mohamed said, based on word from his lawyers, there should be a “good” word from U.S. authorities but he could not say when.