–despite submitting list of candidates to contest upcoming elections

AFTER submitting a list of candidates to contest the upcoming elections, the US-sanctioned businessman, Azruddin Mohamed and members of his party, We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) failed to present a single plan or policy for the development of Guyana.

Despite several questions, Mohamed, although claiming his party has a manifesto, did not speak on a single plan or policy that the party plans to present to the electorate.

At one point, a reporter, who challenged a generic position about diversifying the economy, was forced to dismisses the rudeness of Dr. Mark France of A New and United Guyana (ANUG), which was absorbed by WIN after an agreement.

The party is already facing severe backlash and criticisms for making backroom deals with former APNU+AFC politicians and being led by a businessman who was sanctioned by U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Azruddin along with his father, Nazar Mohamed and their businesses, namely Mohamed’s Enterprise, Hadi’s World and Team Mohamed’s Racing, on June 11, 2024, were sanctioned by U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which oversees sanctions against individuals and entities tied to illicit activities and hostile foreign governments.

In a June 2024 statement, the OFAC stated, “Azruddin and Mohamed’s Enterprise evaded Guyana’s tax on gold exports and defrauded the Guyanese government of tax revenues by under-declaring their gold exports to Guyanese authorities.

Between 2019 and 2023, Mohamed’s Enterprise omitted more than 10 thousand kilogrammes of gold from import-and-export declarations and avoided paying more than US$50 million in duty taxes to the Government of Guyana.”

Just recently,  businesswoman Sarah Ibrahim publicly distanced herself from the presidential ambitions of her cousin, Mohamed, warning Guyanese not to fall for what she described as “a rich man’s vanity project.”

“In just about 50 days, don’t listen to the noise. Don’t follow the pomp and scene. Look at the progress. Look at the speed at which our country is moving. It can’t happen overnight but it’s happening,” she said.

Ibrahim made it clear that her post wasn’t about family drama, it’s about Guyana’s future.

The businesswoman is not the first family member to come out against him. Recently, two of Azruddin’s uncles, Mohamed Yusuf and Mohamed Haseeb Yusuf, publicly declared that he is not capable of leading Guyana.

“My nephew, Azruddin Mohamed, he does not understand politics, he does not understand geo-politics, he is a political [novice]…I don’t think he has that ability, and he is not that educated…that is my main reason. If he had those qualities, I would have been the first to endorse him, but he doesn’t have leadership qualities. So that is why I just dismiss him,” Mohamed Yusuf had said.

Yusuf did not mince his words as he called out his nephew for turning his father’s 30 years of quiet but meaningful charity into a “political circus” to fuel his own “narcissistic” ambitions.

“He hijacked his father’s charity, and he is going about now and turn it into a political circus. He is going to the people and show them that he is such a charitable man and he deserves to lead them. But this guy is not fit, and he and his sister, Hannah Mohamed, they just wake up one morning and decide to form a political party because Azruddin has some social media standing and has a lot of followers. These people are just social media freaks,” Yusuf said.

The two highly respected Muslim men endorsed President, Dr. Irfaan Ali for a second term in office, describing him as the man capable of taking charge of Guyana’s further development.