Opposition leader crisis

Dec 05, 2025 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – Speaker of the House, Manzoor Nadir, has had his struggles with holding the reins of leadership tightly in a disorderly house, when members get out of line. Currently, the Speaker is called upon to represent a principled line on the impasse over the election of the Opposition Leader.

Speaker Nadir has not put his best foot forward, made himself look shabby in the proceedings that his actions and absence have left suspended. For the first time in recent elections seasons, Guyanese have experienced what has been described as relatively calm and peaceful in the completed elections of this year. It would be a tragic irony that the elections process was calm and peaceful, but the subsequent parliamentary process to elect the new Opposition Leader is a matter of upheaval, an issue that disappoints, in view of where it is stuck. In Speaker Nadir’s hands rest the responsibility to get the selection method moving, as powered by Guyana’s Constitution, and the parliamentary rules over which he stands as the chief referee. We must be frank, considering where the Speaker’s hands are on how he approaches the Opposition Leader crisis. From all indications, he has tied his hands rather unwisely, and they now give off an odor of taint.

Not unexpectedly, the Leader of the Opposition-in-waiting, Azruddin Mohamed, has gone beyond the Speaker in an effort to involve others to break the headlock that the latter has imposed. The We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) leader, being the interested party with the most at stake, has now approached the head of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Secretary General Carla Bennett to assist in the situation. It is a good move, but CARICOM should be only the beginning of a wider push to get other voices to weigh-in and add some pressure for a quick and competent resolution to what is now an embarrassing situation. The European Union sent a fairly sizable team as a close observer of the last elections, and should be written to lend its voice to break this Opposition Leader stalemate. In fact, every international group that participated in some way in the last elections should be invited by the WIN party to have a say on the shiftiness of the Speaker that adds another notch in Guyana’s long list of national embarrassments. If they prefer not to call out the Speaker, then they can appeal to him to get moving, and to stop making himself look like a puppet dangling on some invisible rope, and responding to its every tug and nudge.

Due to the fact that CARICOM is from the region, and has been usually deeply involved in Guyana’s elections and their aftermaths, it cannot be content to be a silent bystander to what has happened so far in parliament and how the Opposition Leader’s role is being thwarted and stifled. CARICOM has to do more, must not be afraid to get its head wet, and it must do so now. We recall how in the controversy-plagued 2020 elections, CARICOM was in the thick of developments. In fact, CARICOM was closely involved in the recount, and its leadership was bold enough to take a principled stand on which party emerged as the winner, and which one lost. It lost some friends back then, but the right call was made.

We at this paper believe that the Opposition Leader impasse does not have the daily drama and sharp tensions of the five-month holdup with the 2020 elections. Therefore, this still respected and go to group in the region should make its voice heard, through a clear position taken. The delay in electing the Opposition Leader is approaching over a month, and that is a month too long. What should have been part of the parliamentary routine has now deteriorated to the rigmarole of Speaker Nadir. There may be some who see the intellectual in his postures, when what he has set in motion is more of the comical.

This is getting to be too much, and it makes Guyana into a global laughingstock. Guyana cannot run proper elections, so it always depends on foreign help. Now, Guyana grapples with electing an Opposition Leader. CARICOM should intervene, walkaway as the icebreaker.

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Azruddin Mohamed, crisis, Editorial, Manzoor Nadir, Opposition Leader, We Invest in Nationhood

One thought on “Opposition leader crisis”

Denise Jones December 7, 2025 at 8:01 pm

Yes, CARICOM was very vocal and loud after the 2020 elections. A number of foreign countries flew in their representatives to urge that one party be sworn in.

Now it’s eerily quiet on the Opposition Leader not being sworn in as yet.
I wonder why. Shaking my head at the double standard.

After all, what’s good for the goose, is most certainly good for the gander!

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