GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) says it is opposed to the leader of the main opposition We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party, Azruddin Mohamed, being elected as opposition leader in the Guyana parliament.
Speaker Manzoor Nadir said a meeting will be held on Monday next week to decide on the matter, and Mohamed, whose party won the second-highest number of seats following the September 1 regional and general elections last year, is highly tipped to be elected as opposition leader.
But speaking on his weekly “Issues in the News” programme on Tuesday night, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, told viewers that the ruling party is opposed to Mohamed being elected to the post because he is wanted in the United States on fraud and related charges.
“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,” Nandlall said.
“It is an indictment on our country, an indictment on the English-speaking Caribbean, for a US-sanctioned person, a fugitive offender, a person indicted by a jury in the United States of America for several international financial crimes, and whose extradition is being sought, to become the Leader of the Opposition of our country, possibly,” he said.
Nandlall, such a development would also be an indictment of Guyana’s parliamentary system, the Constitution, and potentially the wider Commonwealth.
“We are making history for all the wrong reasons,” Nandlall added.
Mohammed, along with his billionaire businessman father, Nazar ‘Shell’ Mohamed, was 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 his 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.
Nandlall said that the post of Opposition Leader is the “alternative president of the country” and that he is confident that the ruling party would be “absolved by history” in its position regarding Mohamed.
Those who will vote to support him 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 in reference to Monday’s vote.
In announcing the date for the election of the opposition leader, Nadir, in a broadcast on the state-owned and government-controlled National Communications Network (NCN) on Tuesday night, said, “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”.
Earlier this week, the leader of the minority opposition, Forward Guyana Movement (FGM), Amanza Walton-Desir, threatened to boycott following Monday’s 2026 national budget presentation to Parliament if an opposition leader is not selected by then.
and then  says it is opposed to the leader of the main opposition We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party){kind=link}