ATTORNEY GENERAL and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, has clarified his position on assisting the Guyana Elections Commission with clarifications sought in relation to recent updates to the legislation.
Nandlall made this known as he responded to a complaint raised by the Leader of the Alliance For Change, Nigel Hughes, who accused him of being the legal adviser for GECOM.

As such, he said, “Permit me to clarify for the public that the attorney-general is not the legal adviser of GECOM, neither has the attorney-general ever held himself out to be the legal adviser of GECOM.”
To this end, he stated that the Attorney General is the most senior legal officer of the state and is the representative of the state of Guyana, while also being the principal legal adviser of the government of Guyana.

He explained, “In those many capacities, agencies of state have always historically sought a legal opinion of the attorney general. This is different from the attorney-general being the legal adviser to those state agencies.”
With this, Nandlall stated that one would expect that Hughes, as an attorney, would understand the same; however, the nuance, he said, is lost on Hughes.

He went on to note that historically, the legal opinion of the attorney-general has been sought by the commission for many decades, and the attorney-general’s office has never declined a request to offer a legal opinion to important state agencies, including GECOM.

Against this backdrop, he disclosed that this also occurred during the 2015-2020 period, as the then-government-nominated commissioners approached the Attorney General’s Chambers for legal guidance on numerous issues.
Nandlall distinctly recalled during the 2020 elections impasse seeing those commissioners entering the chambers of the attorney-general to seek legal advice on the order in relation to the recount of ballots, which was agreed to by then president David Granger and the opposition leader.

“I saw when they went into the attorney-general’s chambers with that document in their hands to seek legal guidance, we never accused the Attorney General then of becoming or being the legal adviser of or to GECOM,” he said.

However, speaking specifically to this instance, Nandlall stated that the chairperson, acting on behalf of the commission, wrote to the Attorney General seeking clarifications and his opinion on some of the recent amendments to the National Registration Act and the Representation of the People Act, to which the Office of the Attorney General offered the opinion and legal guidance.

He made clear, “So Mr Hughes, for your benefit, the attorney general is not the legal adviser of GECOM but offered his opinion as was requested and has offered his legal opinion to many independent constitutional agencies and statutory agencies who, from time to time, have sought legal guidance and legal opinions. That doesn’t make the attorney general the legal adviser of those agencies.”