Nandlall swats claim he’s GECOM’s legal adviser

Legal Affairs Minister and Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall has clarified that he is not a legal adviser to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
He, however, pointed out that the Attorney General’s Chambers has historically provided legal opinions to state agencies when solicited.
Nandlall was at the time responding to an accusation from Alliance for Change (AFC) leader Nigel Hughes, who claimed that he (Nandlall) was advising GECOM.
“The Attorney General is not the legal advisor of GECOM neither has the Attorney General ever held himself out to be the legal advisor of GECOM. The AG is the most senior legal officer of the State of Guyana and is the legal representative of the State of Guyana. He is also the principal legal advisor of the Government of Guyana, and in those many legal capacities agencies of state have always historically sought the legal opinion of the Attorney General.”
Nandlall continued that the legal opinion of the AG’s Chambers has been sought by GECOM for many decades, and the office has never declined a request to offer its legal opinion to important state agencies.
He thus challenged opposition commissioners at GECOM to refute seeking advice from the AG’s Chambers during the 2015 to 2020 tenure of the previous government. Nandlall declared that information from staffers of the Ministry of Legal Affairs indicated that both GECOM and the opposition commissioners approached the Attorney General’s Chambers for guidance on several issues.
Nandlall said that he too had seen then-government commissioners approach the Attorney General’s Chambers for guidance on the recount order that was agreed upon by then-Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo and then-President David Granger during the 2020 election impasse.
It is in the same vein, the Attorney General opined, that GECOM recently sought his opinion on pieces of legislation that his office would have played an instrumental role in.
“The GECOM chair acting on behalf of the Commission wrote to the AG searching clarification and his opinion on some of the recent amendments to the National Registration Act and the Representation of the People’s Act, and the Office of the AG offered its opinion and the legal guidance.”
Hughes accused the Attorney General of inserting himself into the affairs of GECOM, calling his provision of legal guidance to the election body alarming. He contended that, given the already announced date for the upcoming elections and Nandlall’s visible political activism on behalf of the People’s Progressive Party, the matter represents a clear conflict of interest.