Attorney General Anil Nandlall has defended offering legal advice and legal opinions to the Guyana Elections Commission, amid Opposition concerns that such advice cannot be considered to be independent.

On his “Issues in the News” television programme on Tuesday night, Mr. Nandlall said he is not the legal advisor to the Elections Commission, but admitted that he has provided legal opinions to the Commission based on requests from the Commission.

Last week, Leader of the Alliance For Change, Nigel Hughes, wrote the Chairman of the Elections Commission seeking answers on the issue. Mr. Hughes said the Elections Commission relying on advice from the Attorney General is a grave conflict of interest, especially since the Attorney General is a likely Candidate in the upcoming elections.

‘Mr. Hughes, for your benefit, the Attorney General is not the legal advisor 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 opinion, that doesn’t make the Attorney General, the legal advisors of those agencies,” Mr. Nandlall said.

The Attorney General said his office has never declined a request from GECOM or any other state body for legal support.

He said GECOM on a number of previous occasions sought and received legal advice from the previous Attorneys General and there was no issue then.

“Historically, the legal opinion of the Attorney General has been sought by GECOM for many decades, and the Attorney General’s office has never declined a request to offer a legal opinion to important state agencies, including of course GECOM,” Mr. Nandlall stated.

Mr. Nandlall did not provide any detail about the advice sought and provided to GECOM.

However, he said the GECOM Chairman had written to him seeking certain clarifications and his opinion  on some of the recent amendments to the National Registration and the Representation of the People Act. He said his office offered legal guidance in line with those requests.

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