–questions Mohamed’s ability to lead

DEMOCRATIC National Congress (DNC) founder Craig Sylvester has accused the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party of stealing his policy proposals for their manifesto from the DNC without acknowledgement after stringing him along under the guise of political collaboration.

Sylvester, who said he formally offered himself as a candidate for WIN on July 10, wrote in a letter published by Stabroek News, detailing how he was repeatedly told to wait while WIN’s key figures, including Natasha Singh-Lewis, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley and Campaign Manager Odessa Primus, promised to review his policy proposals and discuss his candidacy with party financier Azruddin Mohamed.

According to Sylvester, that meeting never materialised. And what did, however, was the striking resemblance between the DNC’s development policies and several key points now featured in WIN’s official manifesto.
Sylvester explained that he first approached Mohamed’s Enterprise six weeks ago, personally handing a DNC brochure to Nazar Mohamed, and requesting that it be passed on to his son, Azruddin. That same day, Azruddin posted about his political ambitions.

“On July 10, 2025, I visited the WIN Campaign office to offer myself as a candidate for the Party. Natasha Singh-Lewis asked me to have a chat with Tabitha Sarabo-Halley to allow me to spell out my ideas for them. Mrs. Halley, along with Duarte Hetsberger and a young man by the name of Fordyce, conducted the interview. Mrs. Sarabo-Halley said subsequently that they would contact me,” Sylvester said in his letter.

Though he submitted a full proposal at their request, he was later blocked from meeting with Azruddin amid what he described as “bureaucratic run-around”.
“I finally met with WIN’s Campaign Manager Odessa Primus, who put me on to Clayon Halley, who she explained was WIN’s point man on the economy. Reflecting that Mrs. Tabitha Sarabo-Halley’s behaviour was now more easily explained, I also saw Natasha Singh-Lewis again, who asked me to document my proposals for the Party and bring it in,” Sylvester wrote, adding that he submitted his documentation to Hana Mohamed, who promised to pass it along to her brother.

By July 14 Nomination Day, Sylvester’s name had not made it to the WIN candidate list. Still, he remained hopeful until he opened WIN’s manifesto and recognised familiar language.
“I had not been included on the Party’s Candidate list, but did have a mixed reaction to seeing some of the DNC’s policies in its brochure on the WIN party’s Manifesto. The WIN party seems to think that the policies in the DNC’s brochure are commonplace ideas available for free copying, and fodder for their political machinery. It is quite apparent now that they were unwilling to compensate me, choosing instead to selectively lift the DNC’s policy proposals to suit their Party’s agenda,” he said.

Sylvester also called into question the fitness of WIN’s Presidential Candidate, pointing to a broader concern that “Guyanese must seriously consider the WIN Presidential Candidate’s obvious inability to speak on the most basic issues which concern Guyanese.”

“His lack of articulateness, expected from someone seeking Guyana’s highest office, must be a concern to everyone, because if he does not have the independence of mind to assert himself on issues, then there must be someone backstage pulling the strings. Who that person happens to be is anyone’s guess, but this is a road I do not think we as a people would want to pursue under any circumstance. My last take on this is that it was probably someone’s grand scheme to get the WIN presidential candidate into Parliament,” Slyvester warned.