Guyana needs an Opposition Leader for “functioning democracy” ; US can work around Mohamed’s legal troubles- American Ambassador

Last Updated on Sunday, 11 January 2026, 22:25 by Denis Chabrol

United States (US) Ambassador to Guyana, Nicole Theriot on Sunday said Guyana needs to have a Leader of the Opposition based on the results of the September 1 general and regional elections, despite legal troubles facing leader of We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) Azruddin Mohamed.

“I think it’s incredibly important that you have a functioning parliament in any democracy and in order to have that, you do need a Leader of the Opposition. It just makes things work properly,” she told reporters after an event at Banks DIH, Thirst Park, Georgetown.

Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir has so far not called the constitutionally required meeting of the 29 opposition parliamentarians to elect, most likely, Mr Mohamed as Opposition Leader as his party won 16 seats with 109,075 votes in the general elections. President Irfaan Ali on Saturday dismissed as “absolutely ridiculous” talk that government was not calling sittings of the National Assembly to avoid the election of Mr Mohamed as Opposition Leader.

Ms Theriot said steps should be taken to have the Opposition Leader in place at the earliest opportunity.”I do think it’s very important for Guyana, as soon as possible, to elect a Leader of the Opposition,” said Ms Theriot who has worked in global political hotspots such as Pakistan, Haiti, Kenya and Nigeria.

Nazar Mohamed and his son, Azruddin Mohamed

Mr Mohamed is wanted by the US to face trial in a Florida federal court for alleged wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering connected to a gold trading business owned by himself and father, Nazar “Shell” Mohamed. Their extradition committal hearing is slated to resume on February 5, 2026.

But the American envoy was quick to reiterate that the US would be unable to engage Mr Mohamed, currently the presumptive Opposition Leader, politically on certain matters. “Like I’ve said before, it complicates matters. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to deal with but what’s most important is that your democracy functions and I think in order for Parliament to do that and to represent the will of the people, who elected this person or who chose this person to have a significant number of seats or chose his party, that they need to move forward with the election.

House Speaker Manzoor Nadir

“It doesn’t impact on us legally but if he is involved in certain aspects of government that we have to deal with; if it involves anything financial or contractual then that might be a slight problem for us and we would just have to ask that someone else work on that issue so for us we can work around it,” she said. The Mohameds were sanctioned in June 2024 by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for allegedly evading more than US$50 million in taxes to Guyana on more than 10,000 kilogrammes of gold. Last year, the US requested their extradition for alleged offences linked to their gold trading business and the younger Mohamed’s export of a Lamborghini from the US to Guyana in a manner that allegedly resulted in the evasion of taxes payable to Guyana.

The US Ambassador noted that the US, European Union, Canada, and the United Kingdom have all called for the election of the Opposition Leader. “I don’t think we can be more clear than that when we say it publicly. It certainly gets to the right ears,” she said when asked whether the diplomatic community has sought to persuade Guyanese authorities that the Opposition Leader should be in place.