Guyana’s 2025 elections to proceed as scheduled following court ruling

The 2025 General and Regional Elections in Guyana will go ahead as planned after Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George dismissed two legal challenges aimed at halting the process.

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The cases were brought earlier this year by accountant Christopher Ram and politician Vishnu Bandhu, who argued that parts of the Representation of the People Act (ROPA) violated constitutional rights—specifically, the right to contest elections individually as outlined in Articles 147 and 160 of the Constitution.

However, the Chief Justice ruled that both applications were “frivolous, vexatious, and without merit,” and dismissed them with costs. Each applicant was ordered to pay $500,000—Bandhu is to pay $250,000 to the Attorney General’s Office and the remainder to the Guyana Elections Commission.

Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall welcomed the ruling, suggesting that the cases were filed with the intention of disrupting the electoral timeline.

“This one was clearly intended to delay the elections, I think,” Nandlall said. “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.”

He added, “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.”