Azzrudin Mohamed of the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party was on Monday morning elected Leader of the Opposition after securing 17 of the 29 votes cast at a meeting of opposition parliamentarians at the Parliament Building in Georgetown.
The vote was taken amid controversy, with 12 APNU Coalition Members of Parliament walking out of the meeting after Mohamed’s nomination was submitted and the process closed.
Mohamed’s support came from WIN’s 16 MPs, along with opposition parliamentarian Amanza Walton-Desir. The APNU parliamentarians did not participate in the final vote, instead staging a walkout.
Speaking with reporters shortly after his election, Mohamed thanked his supporters across Guyana and in the diaspora, listing communities from Regions One through Ten, including Indigenous villages he said he was unable to visit during the campaign period.
“I want to thank all my supporters, the diaspora… I want to thank the people of this country,” Mohamed said. He also expressed gratitude to public servants, his family and religious supporters.
Addressing the relationship with the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) and APNU following their walkout, Mohamed said he remains open to working with them on matters in the national interest.
“Once it’s for the interest, to benefit the people, we will,” he said.
He also singled out Amanza Walton-Desir for thanks, noting her support during the vote and indicating that she would be placed on parliamentary committees.
“We will ensure that we put her on some of the parliamentary committees, since she didn’t get the amount of votes to be on the committees,” he stated.
Mohamed said one of his first priorities as Opposition Leader would be scrutiny of the national budget, which is scheduled to be presented later today.
“We will scrutinise the budget, and then I will make my pronouncements. But I hope the budget is primarily to serve the people and not just a select few,” he said.
He also pledged to focus heavily on corruption.
“Number one, we are going to press hard to stop corruption. Corruption is a major issue in this country,” Mohamed told reporters, adding that Guyana’s politics has for too long been dominated by division between the two main parties.
“Our party is a truly multi-ethnic party… so I am happy that we can serve all the people, all Guyana, not just one Guyana, not just a select few,” he said.
Mohamed’s election comes against the backdrop of serious legal and diplomatic issues. He and his father, businessman Nazar Mohamed, are considered fugitive offenders by United States authorities.
Since November last year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida has said that a federal grand jury in Miami returned an indictment on October 2, charging both men in what prosecutors described as a multi-year scheme to evade taxes and royalties owed to the Government of Guyana through fraudulent gold export practices and related money-laundering activities.
Both men are also under U.S. sanctions.
