AG roasts opposition ‘End misleading supporters’

THE MAIN OPPOSITION A PARTNERSHIP FOR NATIONAL UNITY, ALLIANCE
FOR CHANGE (APNU+AFC) coalition must end misleading their constituencies, counselled
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr. Anil Nandlall.
“Every time a Judge rules against them they attack the judge,” Nandlall complained in a recent
televised broadcast.
“Last week the Chief Justice (Mrs. Roxanne George-Wiltshire) ruled in their favour by ruling
that two Parliamentary Secretaries appointed by his Excellency, President (Irfaan Ally) are
wrongly seated in the National Assembly. The Chief Justice was good then, today the Chief
Justice has dismissed their petition, the Chief Justice is now a political appointee,” the AG said.
“I hear them saying that on Facebook. So, they are going to continue to tarnish the image and
reputation of our judges and the institution called the Judiciary simply because they cannot win,”
the leading government lawyer argued.
CJ George-Wiltshire dismissed the APNU+AFC elections petition seeking to overturn the results
of the March 2020 polls. In her ruling she justified her decision noting inter alia, “there was no
breach or violation or non-compliance by GECOM (Guyana Elections Commission) with the
Constitution or the law governing elections such as to make the elections a sham or a travesty as
claimed by the petitioners.”
She said too that “both Section 22 and Order 60 are both intra vires (inside the powers) [and that].
neither provision offends the Constitution.”
“I am particularly proud that the Chief Justice adopted almost every submission made by the
respondents, in particular the Attorney General. When a lawyer gets that done it brings great
satisfaction because you have persuaded the court by your side of the arguments and it’s not
difficult to do because the process was fair, the process was transparent, the process for the
recount was provided to by the law and that is all the chief justice did to uphold the process,”
Nandlall explained.

He said that the APNU+AFC petition was weak, lacked merit and should have never been filed.
Nandlall reasoned that the CJ’s latest ruling contain seeds for future jurisprudential ripening.
“These rulings in my humble view will help us a far way in helping us to improve the system. It
will help us also in our efforts to reform the system. It has shed light on areas that some may feel
were ambiguous and we hope to go a very far way in helping us…build on the level of
jurisprudence that have come out of a consolidation of these cases in relation to the elections.”
But he was pragmatic too.
“Unfortunately, in Guyana we are faced with a group of politicians who, (it) doesn’t matter what
the law says! (it) doesn’t matter how unrealistic a process may be! For political expediency, and
in order I suppose to ensure their own survival, they continue to embark on processes, on
procedures, and on courses of actions that are inimical to the national interest. That is what we
have here,” Nandlall complained.