GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The Guyana government has welcomed the ruling by acting Chief Justice Roxanne George, who dismissed two election-related cases brought by Christopher Ram and Vishnu Bandhu earlier this year.
Ram and Bandhu had argued 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.
But Justice George ruled that the application lacked merit and failed to show any constitutional breach in the manner in which political parties are required to contest national elections.
She said that there was no evidence to support the claim that the electoral system, particularly the requirement that parties contest both geographical and top-up seats, violated any aspect of Article 25 or related human rights provisions.
Justice George said that the Constitution of Guyana and the Representation of the People Act (ROPA) work in tandem to give effect to the country’s electoral structure, which has been in place for decades.
“Section 11C, which is not challenged, clearly establishes that one cannot focus on contesting only geographical constituencies…To do so…would affect the proportionality granted by the system,” she said, noting that this system is part of a carefully balanced representational framework established through constitutional reform and public consultation.
The court has ordered Ram to pay GUY$500,000 (One Guyana dollar=US$0.004 cents) in costs to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). In contrast, Bandhu was ordered to pay GUY$250,000 to GECOM and GUY$250,000 to Attorney General Anil Nandlall.
Following the court ruling, Nandlall dismissed the cases as “frivolous” and may have been filed to delay the upcoming elections.
“This one was 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,” said Nandlall, who is also the Minister of Legal Affairs.
He said that thankfully, the acting Chief Justice 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 added.
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