Azruddin Mohamed says ready to represent Guyanese as opposition leader

Last Updated on Wednesday, 21 January 2026, 1:21 by Denis Chabrol

Leader of the main opposition We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), Azruddin Mohamed on Tuesday welcomed House Speaker Manzoor Nadir’s announcement that he would call a meeting next Monday for opposition members of parliament (MPs) to elect Guyana’s opposition leader.

With WIN holding 16 of the 29 opposition seats, Mr Mohamed is tipped to be voted as Leader of the Opposition.

He said Mr Nadir bowed to local and international pressure in recent weeks for the country’s democracy to benefit from that constitutional office. “International pressure – the international community spoke, the people of the country were upset, even their (People’s Progressive Party Civic) own supporters and then today (Tuesday) I mentioned that we won’t take it lightly,” he said.

Mr Mohamed had warned that his party would have resorted to street protest if the election was not held.

The election is scheduled for the same day that Guyana’s 2026 National Budget is scheduled to be presented to the National Assembly.

Mr Mohamed, who is legally battling an extradition request by the United States (US) for him and his father to be trialled for alleged financial crimes in Florida, said he would now be better placed to represent Guyanese.

He said since the Speaker’s announcement, he has been inundated with congratulatory messages after a “long, journey, a long fight”.

“I will be even more excited and even more happy to push to represent the people,” he told Demerara Waves Online News. “The supporters now feel that they have someone there with a title to represent them,” he added.

The WIN Leader maintained that whatever he had said recently about Mr Nadir were facts and do not reflect on the desired independence of his office as Speaker of the 65-seat National Assembly.

Among his priorities is pushing for WIN, as the main opposition party, to be represented on the seven-member Guyana Elections Commission.

The Constitution also provides for consultations between the President and the opposition leader for the appointment of the service commissions, chancellor of the judiciary, chief justice and police commissioner.

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) parliamentary leader Dr Terrence Campbell on Tuesday said he filed a High Court action for the scrapping of the Teaching Service Commission because President Ali’s appointment of that body was done without consulting the opposition leader.

In his brief address on the state-owned and government controlled National Communications Network, Mr Nadir explicitly questioned the right of the United States (US) and Canadian envoys here for calling for the election of an opposition leader as that office was important for a functioning democracy.

Indicating his reluctance to see an “international fugitive” become Leader of the Opposition as that would be a “stain”- mirroring concerns by Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall – the Speaker said the opposition member sdof parliament who would vote for Mr Mohamed would have to bear the burden of their decision.

“I intended to convene the meeting for the election of the leader of the opposition, regardless of how that vote would go. If opposition members of parliament feel it morally right to elect an international fugitive, then the stain on our parliament and our country rests solely with them,” he said.

Ever since the first sitting of the National Assembly on November 3, 2025 – following the September 1, 2025 general and regional elections – the House Speaker had declined to say when, in keeping with the Constitution, he would have called the meeting of opposition MPs to elect an opposition leader.

Breaking with convention of a meeting of parliament, President Irfaan Ali, intead, called a meeting of government officials and members of the diplomatic corps last December 17 where he outlined his five-year agenda.

Opposition MPs said they were not invited.