House Speaker to call meeting next Monday to elect Opposition Leader

Last Updated on Wednesday, 21 January 2026, 1:18 by Denis Chabrol

Speaker of the National Assembly Manzoor Nadir on Tuesday night said he would reluctantly call a meeting of opposition members of the National Assembly next Monday at 10 a.m. to elect Guyana’s Leader of the Opposition.

In an address, he said “I have found myself in this difficult position to hold the election of the Leader of the Opposition when I know that the presumptive Leader of the Opposition to be elected as an international fugitive.”

Budget Day is also on January 26.

Leader of We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), Azruddin Mohamed, who is wanted by the United States for financial crimes, is tipped to be elected because his party won 16 seats in last year’s election to become the main opposition party.

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) won 12 seats and Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) one.

The extradition committal hearing is expected to resume on February 5.

Stressing the need to “uphold the dignity” of the House, Mr Nadir, a veteran Guyanese politician, said the opposition parliamentarians who would vote for Mr Mohamed, would have to bear the burden of that decision to elect a fugitive.

“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,” the Speaker said in his address which was broadcast on the State-owned and government controlled National Communications Network (NCN).

He assailed the diplomatic community, sections of the media and leader of the main opposition We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) for intensifying calls for Azruddin Mohamed to be elected Guyana’s opposition leader.

Directing his comments specifically at US Ambassador Nicole Theriot, he questioned who the opposition leader in her country is and whether the person’s absence interferes with America’s democratic process.

Turning his attention to Canada’s High Commissioner to Guyana, Sébastien Sigouin, Mr Nadir stopped short of questioning that country’s democracy.

“Your country has the unique distinction of having a person who is never elected to parliament serve as a prime minister, a person imposed on the citizens of Canada by the former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,” he said.

Mr Nadir repeatedly called Mr Mohamed, who is wanted by the United States (US) for alleged financial crimes an “international fugitive.”

Mr Nadir deemed as “false and outright absurd” that the National Assembly has not been functioning, saying that more than 90 questions and five motions have been received by the Clerk of the National Assembly.