Azruddin Mohamed says will be opposition leader

Last Updated on Monday, 8 September 2025, 23:19 by Writer

Leader of We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) Azruddin Mohamed on Monday said he would be entering the National Assembly as Guyana’s next opposition leader.

He told Demerara Waves Online News that he and 15 other elected candidates would be entering the National Assembly when Parliament convenes for the first time since the September 1 polls. “We already came up with our list,” he said. WIN won 109,075 of the 438,468 valid votes that were cast.

“Yes”, he said when asked whether he would be the new opposition leader. Asked how he foresees his role, Mr Mohamed said, “everything that I will be doing and everything that I did in the past is for the people so we would have to hold the government accountable.”

Mr Mohamed said his party would ensure that the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC)-led administration delivers on its promises. He was pessimistic that the Irfaan Ali administration would accept WIN’s proposals but would still engage the government in the 65-seat National Assembly in passing certain pieces of legislation. “We would recommend certain parts of our manifesto. We know they’ll shoot it down but at the end of the day, we would be working for the best interest of the people of the country,” he said.

He said WIN would be engaging only with the ruling PPPC which won 36 seats with 242,497 votes in Parliament. “Whatever we want to do, we want to do in Parliament in public, no closed door,” he said.

Emerging from a blistering onslaught from the PPPC during the election campaign, Mr Mohamed was asked how he intended to cross that barrier. He noted that already PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo had stated that he preferred to work with APNU Chairman Aubrey Norton instead of WIN in the Parliament. “We know why he (sic) rather work with APNU because he is only about race, tribal voting, tribal politics. This is what Jagdeo likes. My party will include everybody,” he said.

Mr Jagdeo had prior to the just concluded general elections repeatedly boasted that the PPPC was Guyana’s only multi-ethnic party with more Afro-Guyanese in recent years. He had also said the PPPC enjoys good support from Amerindians.

WIN would be lobbying the international community, he said, for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to introduce digitalised biometrics for registration and verification as well as a new voters list. “If we go into another election, trust me, in 2030 with the same list and how we are voting, they will win again,” he said.