PPP opposes Azruddin Mohamed becoming opposition leader – Nandlall

Last Updated on Wednesday, 21 January 2026, 21:37 by Writer

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) is opposed to leader of the main opposition We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) Azruddin Mohamed becoming Guyana’s Leader of the Opposition because the United States (US) sanctioned and also wants him to face trial for financial crimes, PPP executive member Anil Nandlall said.

“The party of Cheddi Jagan is proud to say that it has opposed and it stands in opposition to such a person being elevated to that high post,” he said on his Tuesday night social media programme, “Issues In The News.” 

The position by Mr Nandlall, who is also the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, mirrors that taken by Speaker of the National Assembly Manzoor Nadir.

The Speaker announced on Tuesday night that he would be summoning a meeting of the 29 opposition members of parliament (MPs) next Monday at 10 a.m. to elect Mr Mohamed as opposition leader.

Remarking that the post of opposition leader is the “alternative president of the country,” Mr Nandlall said he was confident that the PPP would be “absolved by history”.

He took a verbal swipe at the other opposition MPs who are expected to vote for Mr Mohamed. “Those who will vote to support him, they will be judged for their position. History will record whom they supported and the role they played. in placing such a person in that high constitutional office,” the Attorney General said, similar to Mr Nadir’s position.

In an NCN state-owned television address on Tuesday night, Mr Nadir stated that “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.”

His address came after Western Nations added their voice to local calls for the election of a Leader of the Opposition.

Mr Nadir gave no specific reason for the delay in calling the meeting of opposition MPs, but hinted at the reason for his reluctance to do so. “I have a responsibility, as I said earlier, to preserve the dignity of the House. I have found myself in this difficult position of holding the election of the Leader of the Opposition when I know that the presumptive Leader of the Opposition, to be elected, Azruddin Mohamed, is an international fugitive,”he said.

Mr Mohamed and his father, Nazar ‘Shell’ Mohamed, were sanctioned by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for allegedly smuggling more than 10,000 kilogrammes of gold worth more than US$50 million and in the process failing to pay the relevant taxes to the Guyana government.

Last October, a US Federal Grand Jury unsealed an 11-count indictment on the Mohameds for alleged wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering.

Subsequently, the US requested their extradition to face trial for those alleged crimes.

Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman has set February 5 for the continuation of extradition committal hearings.

The Mohameds are also challenging the validity of the extradition request in two separate civil cases in the High Court.