Dear Editor,
After a delay of more than three months since the election of the Parliamentary Speaker and the swearing-in of Members of Parliament in Guyana, the Speaker finally convened the required meeting of Opposition members that elected, as expected, Mr Azruddin Mohamed, Leader of the WIN party, as Leader of the Official Opposition (LOO). Mr Mohamed’s meteoric rise from political novice to LOO in about a year was a political tsunami that (a) devastated the PNC (in parliament as APNU), one of the two behemoths of Guyana’s politics and the party founded by Mr LFS Burnham, the first Prime Minister and the first Executive President of the country; and (b) sent shock waves through the governing PPP hierarchy despite the fact that this party emerged with a seven-seat parliamentary majority in the elections. In this piece I share my thoughts on the reasons for the spectacular rise of Mr Mohamed and the WIN party.
Mr Mohamed was a close friend of the PPP’s leadership but, until he was sanctioned by the US authorities for violating US laws and facing likely extradition, he had demonstrated no interest in active party politics. However, after being sanctioned by the US and abandoned by his former friends in the PPP, in particular President Ali, he saw politics as his avenue to possibly avoid extradition and at the same time contribute to the downfall of the PPP in the elections that were due within a year. In my view, his foremost motivation to enter politics was personal, i.e. to save himself from extradition, and that caused him to devote all his time, energy and huge financial resource to his political battle.
I do not accept the view expressed by the leaders of the PPP and the PNC/APNU that Mr Mohamed paid individuals to vote for his party in the 2025 general elections. That claim made no sense as no one can guarantee how an individual will vote in the privacy of the voting booth. Mr Mohamed’s financial resource benefited him by enabling his frequent and extensive travel to all parts, even some of the remotest parts, of the country. He was therefore able to listen and bring to light concerns of neglect in these communities. As well, he was able to fund WIN organizers in these communities who kept his message alive and who constantly appraised him of issues to be raised to embarrass the government and the PNC/APNU opposition.
Unlike the PPP, the PNC/APNU and the former UF, all of which had a philosophical grounding at their formation and a view for the future development of the country, WIN has not expressed any such ideology or plan. Leading up to the elections, WIN was Azruddin and Azruddin was WIN, and his handlers maintained a tight control on his communication and his media exposure. Social media with well scripted statements read by him were the major means of communication and he was shielded from holding press conferences with journalists from the major national media houses. Consistently, his political message was simple – I am being persecuted by this PPP government, and I am running to help you the people to fight this uncaring and corrupt government. This latter message found resonance in parts of the country that felt neglected by the government, and the WIN party made substantial gains in these areas.
WIN’s votes came mainly from former traditional supporters of the PNC/APNU who transferred allegiance to WIN causing the PNC/APNU, for the first time in its nearly sixty-eight years history, to fall to third party status in parliament. Region 10 which includes the town of Linden (named after PNC founder Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham) is a good example of this swing.
The decline in the traditional support of the PNC/APNU commenced with its leaders’ attempt to hold on to power based on an attempted fraudulent declaration of election results in 2020, an event that was publicly observed and condemned by local and international election observers and which alienated many fair-minded PNC/APNU supporters. This was followed by internal dissension over the position of the LOO in the ensuing parliament, a position the party earned after gaining the second highest number of parliamentary seats in 2020. After that was resolved the party continued its downward spiral under the new LOO. By the time the 2025 elections came around, the party was seriously fractured with the sidelining of and/or departure of a number of popular party stalwarts who disagreed with the LOO’s management and direction of the party.
Although PPP leaders and, in particular, President Irfan Ali had made great efforts to win over disenchanted PNC/APNU supporters, the majority chose to join the WIN team. This is not surprising. Much to their later regret both the leader of the PNC/APNU, Mr Aubrey Norton, and the leader of now sidelined AFC, Mr Nigel Hughes, had given tacit support to Mr Azruddin Mohamed as he contemplated launching his political career. In fact, their supporters had flocked to the protection of Azruddin and his property to prevent the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) from seizing his Lamborghini when he failed to comply with a GRA’s request. Mr Mohamed further enhanced his standing with traditional PNC/APNU and AFC supporters when he joined forces in condemning the police and government handling of the Adriana Younge’s drowning. In Guyana which has a history of voting along racial lines and where race could be a lightning rod for communal violence, as happened in this case, he joined conspiracy proponents in claiming the drowning of this Afro-Guyanese child in the swimming pool of a hotel owned by an Indo-Guyanese businessman, was a murder. He is quoted in Demerara Waves of July 13, 2025, as saying in Linden, a town of predominantly Afro-Guyanese residents, “Come the second of September, I’ll get the FBI to investigate that murder”. This was said “to applause”.
Although minimal, WIN also made inroad in traditional PPP areas. As the party in government, it is expected that there will be some disenchantment with its policies. However, in my view the government’s performance in a number of areas, especially in relation to some of the major infrastructure projects, has been less than stellar, with some projects awarded to contractors with no relevant expertise or experience. Moreover, government has not demonstrated a serious commitment to hold individuals and contractors accountable for shoddy work, failure to meet project deadlines which kept on being extended, and in some cases, payment for work not started or completed. As a result, the WIN party has been able to highlight these, bring attention to unresolved problems in PPP strongholds and gain support. Also, some fair-minded PPP supporters across the country abhorred the apparent encouragement by party brass of the harassment meted out to the WIN leader when he attempted to address his supporters in PPP dominated areas. Thus, the PPP leaders may have inadvertently created among its traditional supporters, blocks of sympathy voters for the WIN party.
Other factors also played a role in Mr Mohamed’s amazing electoral success. These include voter fatigue and apathy with the two established major parties, considered by some as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and hence a preference for a new face; Azruddin’s well publicized benevolence to a number of needy families, including a motor car for one and a home for another; and although being released at the last moment, an election manifesto that promised significantly increased financial benefits to several segments of the electorate, e.g. civil servants, pensioners, and the disabled.
Now in parliament Mr Mohamed will have to prove his mettle and justify the trust placed in him and his party by a major segment of the Guyanese electorate. And, equally important, he should without delay proceed to have a succession plan in place as a contingency in the event of a 50-50 chance he is extradited to the US.