{"id":26376,"date":"2025-02-09T00:24:29","date_gmt":"2025-02-09T00:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/?p=26376"},"modified":"2025-02-09T00:24:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-09T00:24:30","slug":"legal-dispute-over-voter-verification-continues-in-high-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/legal-dispute-over-voter-verification-continues-in-high-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal Dispute Over Voter Verification Continues in High Court"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n\n<p><em>By Nakasia Logan, January 15, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The legal battle concerning the verification of voters&#8217; addresses took center stage in the High Court today, with differing views presented by Attorney General Anil Nandlall and Attorney at Law Dexter Todd. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The case, heard before Acting Chief Justice Roxanne George, focuses on the interpretation and application of voter registration laws under the 1980 Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Attorney General Nandlall emphasized that the legal issues at the heart of the dispute have already been addressed by the courts in a previous case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He argued that excluding individuals from the voters&#8217; list based on address would be unconstitutional, citing a ruling where it was established that residency is not a requirement for voter registration or voting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nandlall also referenced recent amendments made to the law to ensure its alignment with constitutional principles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While he acknowledged the right to challenge the matter, he expressed confidence that the courts would reaffirm the previous decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In contrast, Attorney Todd argued that the main issue lies in ensuring the accuracy of the voter register, particularly by properly linking registrants to their stated addresses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Todd pointed out that the current amendments only address the claims made by registrants, rather than verifying the connection between the registrant and their address. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This, he suggested, has led to complications in the voter verification process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The legal action was initiated by Carol Smith-Joseph, the Opposition&#8217;s Chief Scrutineer, who filed a lawsuit against the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) in December 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Smith-Joseph claims that GECOM&#8217;s verification process is insufficient and could jeopardize the accuracy of the National Register of Registrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She contends that the lack of adequate verification of registrants&#8217; addresses may result in an unlawful voters&#8217; list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The case will return to court on March 17, 2025, for further arguments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Nakasia Logan, January 15, 2025 The legal battle concerning the verification of voters&#8217; addresses took center stage in the High Court today, with differing views presented by Attorney General&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":19099,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[350],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26377,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26376\/revisions\/26377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}