Elections to move ahead as High Court throws out two election-related cases

The 2025 General and Regional Elections will not be delayed, as Chief Justice Roxanne George dismissed two election-related cases brought by Christopher Ram and Vishnu Bandhu earlier this year.

The two cases sought to argue that sections of the Representation of the People Act (ROPA) infringed upon the right of Guyanese to contest the elections individually, and were in contradiction to Articles 147 and 160 of the Constitution.

Dismissing the cases as “frivolous”, Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs Mohabir Anil Nandlall said that the cases may have been filed to delay the upcoming elections.

“This one was clearly intended to delay the elections, I think…but they realised when they read our answer and our submissions I believe that they felt quickly that they can’t achieve that objective…and we managed to persuade the Chief Justice to determine the case long before the elections so that one can’t say we have this hovering over our head going into the elections,” the AG said.

Thankfully, he said, Chief Justice (ag) George recognised the flaws in the arguments.

“So, the Court in the end dismissed [the] application as well, [and] found it to be without merit…eventually we were able to persuade the Chief Justice that both applications were frivolous, vexatious, and without merit, and they were dismissed with costs awarded,” he noted.

Both applicants have been ordered to pay costs of $500,000 each.

Bandhu was ordered to pay $250,000 to the Attorney General’s Office and the remaining sum to the Guyana Elections Commission (Republished from the Department of Public Information)