For nearly 60 years, Guyana has been locked in a cycle of ethnic bloc voting, political stalemates, and recycled leadership. Elections come and go, but the results often fall along entrenched racial and party lines. In this familiar contest for power, one party appeals primarily to Indo-Guyanese, the other to Afro-Guyanese, and both sides remain firmly dug in.
But now, a wildcard has entered the political arena—and he’s refusing to play by the conventional rules of Guyanese politics. Azruddin Mohamed, the flashy businessman-turned-political upstart, is disrupting the traditional political order in ways few anticipated.
While President Irfaan Ali and Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton engage in partisan posturing—trading barbs in Parliament and battling through press conferences—Mohamed is taking a grassroots approach: walking through villages, knocking on doors, and engaging directly with citizens from Berbice to Bartica, Region One to Region Ten.
More than just showing up, Mohamed is delivering: supporting pensioners, distributing food hampers, donating to health initiatives, and funding back-to-school efforts. But it’s not the giveaways that are turning heads—it’s the connection.
Mohamed doesn’t read from a script. He doesn’t stay behind barricades. He walks in the rain, hugs children, and listens intently. People aren’t just hearing him—they’re feeling him. That’s something both Ali and Norton have struggled to evoke.
President Ali, while polished and presidential, carries the baggage of incumbency and leads a party still working to convince Afro-Guyanese voters that it governs inclusively. Norton, meanwhile, has struggled to expand beyond the PNC’s traditional base.
Though politically seasoned, he often appears more as a partisan operator than a national unifier. Between them, decades of parliamentary experience have done little to heal Guyana’s persistent divisions.
Mohamed, by contrast, is not part of either of the two dominant parties—the PPP/C or the PNC/R-led coalition—that have long traded power and blamed each other for Guyana’s woes. His lack of political lineage is his greatest strength.
In a country fatigued by the same faces and the same rhetoric, his outsider status resonates deeply.
That said, let’s be clear: Azruddin Mohamed is not a political messiah. His lack of governance experience raises important questions. Can he manage a government? Does he grasp the complexities of international diplomacy, public policy, and Guyana’s evolving oil economy? Passion, popularity, and philanthropy are no substitutes for competence and capability in leadership.
Still, Mohamed’s appeal lies in his message—a message many Guyanese have yearned to hear but rarely do: that Guyana belongs to all Guyanese, not just PPP or PNC loyalists. He speaks in the language of national unity, not party politics. And that message is resonating, even with citizens who have never voted outside of their ethnic group. That alone signals a political shift of seismic proportions.
He may lack a detailed manifesto. He may not have a seasoned political machine behind him. But what he does have is something neither of his opponents has been able to inspire—hope fully. And in a country grown cynical about politics that may be the most potent force of all.
Azruddin Mohamed isn’t just running a campaign. He’s igniting a conversation that this country has avoided for too long. And if he continues to show up, continues to connect, and proves he’s more than just a philanthropic figurehead, he might do the unthinkable.
