WIN writes House Speaker about electing opposition leader

Last Updated on Tuesday, 4 November 2025, 20:18 by Writer

We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) has written to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir about holding the election for the post of Leader of the Opposition, now that party leader Azruddin Mohamed was Monday sworn in as a member of parliament (MP).

Mr Mohamed, who is on GY$150,000 bail pending a magistrate’s hearing into whether there are grounds to accede to the United States’ (U.S.) request for him to be extradited to face trial for alleged wire fraud and money laundering, said he expected to be elected opposition leader. “The Leader of the Opposition, of course, is me. We’re the main opposition party–no questions about that, so we’re waiting for the Speaker to convene the meeting so that the other parliamentarians will elect me, of course,” he told reporters.

He said he was concerned that that meeting was not held on Monday “because it should have happened today.” In previous parliamentary sessions, the opposition leader was not elected at the first sitting.

Fellow WIN MP, Tabita Sarabo-Halley told reporters that her party dispatched a letter to the House Speaker signed by all WIN MPs, formally requesting that he calls a meeting of opposition MPs to elect the opposition leader. She said the party formally asked that that election be held during the course of Monday’s sitting, but Mr Nadir said orally that formal notices would have to be issued but it does not have to wait until the next sitting of the National Assembly. Asked what prompted her party to write the Speaker, she said it was to inform the Speaker that “we would like to hold the meeting” in keeping with Guyana’s Constitution to elect the Leader of the Opposition.

APNU’s parliamentary leader Dr Terrence Campbell hoped that the election of the opposition leader would be done “soon because it’s a constitutionally important position and we in the APNU respect the office of the Leader of the Opposition regardless of who is there.”

After taking the oath of office Mr Mohamed immediately pumped his fist at the government benches whose front-row was occupied by among others, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo and Attorney General Anil Nandlall. After the sitting was officially adjourned and Clerk of the National Assembly Sherlock Isaacs was making announcements about phones and laptops for MPs, Mr Jagdeo remarked jocularly about Mr Mohamed and his co-accused father, Nazar “Shell” Mohamed being able to use those devices while in the U.S.

Mr Mohamed also said he has two nominees to replace two of the three A Partnership for National Unity-backed election commissioners on the Guyana Elections Commission. He declined to name them at this time.

The WIN Leader arrived for the first parliamentary sitting after the September 1 general and regional elections in his Lamborghini luxury car, with engines revving loudly in the compound of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown. His alleged importation of that car at a cheaper declared price to the Guyana Revenue Authority’s Customs Department in order to avoid paying the full taxes is the subject of two criminal charges by that inland revenue agency.

Mr Mohamed also frowned on the decision by the governing People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) to use its 36 seats to vote for one of its MP, Dr Vishwa Mahadeo, to be the Deputy Speaker instead of allowing WIN’s Ms Sarabo-Halley to take up that post in keeping largely with the convention that that person comes from the opposition. “As we can clearly see, the PPP they want a one-state government. They want to control everything…Full-blown dictatorship but you know what? I’m going to stand up and fight to the end to represent the people of this country,” he said.

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) did not use its 12 seats to vote symbolically for either. Later, Dr Campbell said it would have been futile to do so because the PPPC already has a clear majority. “We didn’t have the numbers so I thought it was a futile attempt. Once the PPP nominated one of their own, obviously with superior numbers they are going to support their own nominee,” he said.