ATTORNEY GENERAL (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, has reminded the public and electoral miscreants that there are serious legal consequences for any individual who attempts to obstruct or interfere with a person’s right to vote in Guyana.

Speaking during his weekly programme “Issues in the News” the Attorney General pointed to specific provisions under the Representation of the People Act (RoPA) which outline a range of offences and the penalties for same.

“Our Representation of the People Act creates a series of offences for anyone who obstructs or otherwise interferes with a person’s right to vote,” Nandlall said
He indicated that sections of the act deem it a criminal offence for persons without due authority to obstruct or interfere with access to or egress from a polling place and further obstruct the voting at an election by a registered elector.

According to Nandlall, anyone found guilty of these offences faces not only a fine and imprisonment but also additional disqualifications. “Such a person shall be liable on a summary conviction to a fine of $5 million together with imprisonment for a term of three years,” he stated.

Against this backdrop, he stated that, “So not only will you be charged and be subject to a fine of $5 million, together with… and together with meaning you got to pay the fine, and serve a term of imprisonment for three years. And then, in addition to that, you are going to be disqualified from voting… and disqualified from being elected as a member of the National Assembly for five years from the date of your conviction.”
To this end, the AG further cautioned against any attempts to mislead electors on polling day, noting that this, too, constitutes a criminal offence.

“Any person who in the intention of misleading an elector on the day of poll… deliberately providing misleading information to the elector, or… deliberately making a misleading statement of a material nature to the elector, commits an offence,” he explained. Offenders “are liable on a summary conviction to a fine of $5 million and imprisonment for three years.”

With this, he addressed the discourse around language-based voter suppression to which he made it clear that linguistic ability is not and has never been a qualification to vote in Guyana or any democratic nation.
“No system will bar the exercise of a right to vote because a person cannot speak a language… Guyana is in that league of nations,” he added.

Further to this, he also warned that targeting individuals based on language amounts to discrimination, which is unconstitutional and also becomes a manifestation of xenophobia, which is also an international crime.
“This is what the law lays out very clearly. This will be the consequence that will flow from your action,” Nandlall cautioned, urging those attempting to hinder the voting process to consider the legal and constitutional ramifications.