GEORGETOWN, Guyana - Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has described as “garbage” suggestions that the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) was seeking to prevent the leader of the opposition We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), Azruddin Mohamed, from being sworn in as Opposition Leader.
The leader of the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), Azruddin Mohamed, being sworn in as a legislator on MondayParliament met for the first time on Monday following the September 1 regional and general election and the WIN party has emerged as the one with the second most seats in the 65-member Parliament, taking the position traditional by either of the two dominant political parties, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) or the PPP/C.
The WIN has since written to the re-elected Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir concerning the holding of an election for the post of Opposition Leader, now that its leader, Mohamed was Monday sworn in as a parliamentarian on Monday.
“The Leader of the Opposition, of course, is me. We’re the main opposition party; no questions about that so we’re waiting for the Speaker to convene the meeting so that the other parliamentarians will elect me, of course,” Mohamed told reporters, adding that he is concerned that that meeting was not held Monday “because it should have happened today”.
However, in previous parliamentary sessions, the Opposition Leader was not elected at the first sitting.
Fellow WIN parliamentarian, Tabita Sarabo-Halley, told reporters that her party dispatched a letter to the House Speaker signed by all WIN parliamentarians, formally requesting that he calls a meeting of opposition parliamentarians to elect the Opposition Leader.
She said the party formally asked that that election be held during the course of Monday’s sitting, but Nadir said orally that formal notices would have to be issued but it does not have to wait until the next sitting of the National Assembly.
Jagdeo told reporters that “there is no opposition leader elected yet”, adding “they have to go through a process, through a selection or voting process, to determine who will be the next opposition leader”.
He recalled that in 2020, when the PNCR’s leader Aubrey Norton was elected as opposition leader, the process took a month because the opposition could not reach a consensus.
Jagdeo said that WIN misleadingly told their supporters that the opposition leader would be sworn in on Monday “and somehow that it is a conspiracy of the People’s Progressive Party not to have that done.
“That’s all garbage. They peddle that a lot, misinformation”, he told reporters.
Mohamed and his billionaire businessman father, Nazar Mohamed, were arrested and granted GUY$150,000 (One Guyana dollar=US$0.004 cents) bail last Friday, a day after the United States formally sent an extradition request to Guyana.
The 38-year-old politician along with his 73-year-old father, are the subject of an indictment unsealed on October 6, 2025, by a United States Grand Jury sitting in the Southern District of Florida, which charges them with multiple offences including wire fraud, mail fraud, money-laundering, conspiracy, aiding and abetting and customs-related violations connected to an alleged US$50 million gold export and tax evasion scheme.
The indictment alleges that between 2017 and June 2024, the accused conspired to defraud the Guyana government by evading export taxes and royalties on over 10,000 kilograms of gold, using falsified customs declarations and re-used export seals to disguise unpaid duties. The indictment further references the attempted shipment of US$5.3 million in undeclared gold seized at Miami International Airport, and the alleged under-invoicing of a luxury vehicle valued at over US$680,000.
According to the indictment, the alleged fraudulent scheme operated “from in or about 2017” through June 2024.
In June 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the Mohameds and their company, Mohamed’s Enterprise, citing allegations of tax evasion, trade-based money-laundering, and gold smuggling.
Jagdeo told reporters that “not a single person” in the ruling party indicted him, saying “the U.S. prosecutors went to a grand jury, and the grand jury indicted him on serious charges”.
Jagdeo reiterated that holding public office offers no immunity from criminal prosecution.
“There’s no immunity as a Member of Parliament, even as Opposition Leader”, he said, rejecting the idea that Mohamed’s swearing-in could influence his legal troubles, insisting that the government acted fully within the constitutional timeframe for reconvening the 13th Parliament.
