The political pressure surrounding Guyana’s parliamentary Opposition intensified Thursday after another major WIN/Mohamed social-media platform disappeared, this time removing the official We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) Facebook page with more than 40,000 followers.
The development comes just weeks after the disappearance of the Team Mohamed Facebook page, which had more than 500,000 followers and was one of the principal platforms used by Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed to communicate with supporters and the wider public. The circumstances surrounding that page’s disappearance have never been publicly established.
WIN, in a statement issued Thursday, said the latest disappearance amounts to the loss of another direct communication channel for the country’s largest parliamentary Opposition bloc.
“The official platforms of Guyana’s main parliamentary Opposition and its Leader of the Opposition have both disappeared within three weeks.”
The party says the two platforms were not merely political publicity pages but important channels through which elected representatives communicated parliamentary positions, constituency matters, public meetings and other national issues directly to Guyanese.
The disappearance comes against a backdrop of escalating disputes between Mohamed, WIN and state institutions.
Mohamed has recently been arrested twice in connection with a police investigation involving alleged drone activity near President Irfaan Ali’s private residence at Leonora. He denied owning the drone found in a vehicle in which he was travelling and was released on self-bail. He was later arrested again after appearing on a Facebook Live broadcast near the area. Police cited an alleged breach of “security protocol.”
The Team Mohamed page disappeared shortly after police seized Mohamed’s phones and other property. His attorney subsequently wrote to Police Commissioner Clifton Hicken demanding the return of the property and raising questions about the disappearance of the page. The lawyer stopped short of publicly establishing that police deleted it, while police have not said they were responsible.
The new disappearance therefore raises a fresh question, although there is presently no publicly established evidence linking the latest Facebook action to the Guyana Government, police or any other state agency.
WIN is nevertheless demanding that Meta preserve all records concerning both pages and explain what happened.
The party also points to other unresolved disputes, including the continued retention of vehicles and a boat used by the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, the refusal by the Maritime Administration Department to renew Mohamed’s captain’s licence, and notices issued to two WIN nominees to the Local Government Commission concerning the closure of their local bank accounts.
MARAD has denied that its decision on the captain’s licence is politically motivated, saying licensing decisions are governed by legal, regulatory and compliance considerations.
WIN Takes Fight to United States
The latest development comes as WIN supporters in the United States take their concerns to the streets.
The newly established WIN New York chapter is organising a protest today outside United Nations headquarters in New York, followed by a gathering in Queens. Organisers say the demonstration is intended to draw international attention to what they describe as the treatment of Mohamed and restrictions on the ability of Guyana’s parliamentary Opposition to function and communicate.
WIN is calling on diplomatic missions, CARICOM, the OAS, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Commonwealth, the United Nations and international democracy and human-rights organisations to examine the situation.
The party holds 16 of the 29 opposition seats in Guyana’s 65-member National Assembly, making it the largest opposition bloc. Mohamed subsequently became Leader of the Opposition.
With both major Facebook platforms now unavailable, WIN says more than 580,000 followers have lost established online channels through which they received information from Mohamed and the party.
“This is about the right of Guyana’s elected Opposition to speak, the right of our constituents to hear us, and the democratic right of an Opposition to function without interference.”
The immediate issue now confronting WIN is straightforward but unresolved — why did another major Opposition platform disappear, who made the decision, and will Meta explain and restore it?
