Special traffic court, e-prosecution for offenders being considered – President Ali

Traffic offenders could soon find themselves facing a faster, fully digital path to prosecution as President DrIrfaan Ali announced sweeping plans to modernise how traffic violations are processed-from the roadside to the courtroom.

Addressing Police ranks on Wednesday, the Commander-in-Chief said the world is being reshaped by Artificial Intelligence and rapid digital advancement, and Guyana must move just as quickly to stay effective.

At the centre of the shift, he said is the country’s new e-ticketing system, which the President said is already transforming law enforcement on the road.

“We have started the e-ticketing system that has been working tremendously well,” he said, adding that it has brought “sanity on our roadways” by reducing bias and removing much of the human interference that once influenced traffic enforcement.

But the success of the system is creating a new challenge of volume.

With technology able to detect and process offences at high speed, President Ali warned that the traditional court system may soon struggle to keep up. To prevent backlogs and delays, he floated the idea of a specialised traffic court.

“Because of the mere speed of this technology and the number of transactions, the judiciary may very well have to look at a specialised court to deal with traffic offences,” he said.

He stressed that if offenders believe cases can be delayed, it could weaken the impact of enforcement.

To close that gap, the Head of State has tasked Minister of Home Affairs, Oneidge Walrond with advancing legislative changes to digitise the entire process. That would mean e-ticketing linked directly to e-prosecution, with warrants and court documents all handled through an electronic platform.

“It is the only way we can achieve and celebrate the fullness of technology,” President Ali declared.

The reforms will also introduce a long-anticipated points-based demerit system, which will be built directly into the e-ticketing framework. Upcoming amendments will spell out how the system works, how unpaid tickets affect drivers and the different tiers of licence suspension.

“We don’t have to wait. We have to do this, our lives matter,” Dr Ali said.