General and regional elections unlikely to be delayed if appeals are filed

Last Updated on Wednesday, 27 August 2025, 23:06 by Writer

The High Court is on Friday due to rule on whether Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) should be placed on the ballot to contest the general elections although it is not fielding geographical constituency candidates, but if the decision is appealed that is unlikely to stop next Monday’s general and regional elections, lawyers said.

Lawyer for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Arudranauth Gossai told reporters that he did not expect either the Guyana Court of Appeal or the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to order a deferral of the elections until the hearing and determination of an appeal. Mr Gossai said the Court would most likely come down in favour of the larger good of a significant segment of the population who ought not to be inconvenienced. “I don’t see any court doing that at this late stage because you have to look at the rights not only of the applicant but of the thousands of Guyanese who are also going to be affected because you have over 300 or 400,000 voters leaving aside Districts 7, 8 and 9 so the Court has to cast a balancing exercise,” he said. Mr Gossai, who practiced in the Eastern Caribbean States on election matters, said elections are not stopped.

He said case law establishes that after the candidates have been nominated and published in the Official Gazette, the Court will not stop the election from going on. “You can contest the election and then present your arguments afterward,” he said.

On the other hand, he said if the court rules that FGM should be placed on the ballot paper for Regions 7, 8 and 9, “the elections can’t go on without putting them on the ballot paper; is as simple as that.” At the same time, he said if the Court finds that FGM should be on the ballot paper, the election must go ahead and challenged subsequently through an election petition.

Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall would not be drawn into what would be the fate of the polls if the Court of Appeal issues an order to suspend the process. “I’m not going to deal with any eventuality. I know that I’m a candidate. I’m going to elections with the rest of the country on September the first,” he said.

Reacting to claims by Mr Gossai and Mr Nandlall that FGM decided to file the High Court case on August 20 although the applicant knew of the alleged wrong in early July when GECOM published the required documents, FGM Leader Amanza Walton-Desir said the delay was due to the need to confirm that her party was not on the ballot. “The agent, having physical sighting of the ballot, and he was able to confirm that we were not on it,” she said.

Mr Nanlall said FGM’s candidate Krystal Hadassah Fisher was “lucky” that the court heard the case one week before the elections. “You can’t come on the umpteenth minute on the eve of a national event so important like a general election and file proceedings that may affect the holding of those elections. Public importance and the public’s interest will supersede your alleged grievance,” he said.