Court rejects PNC member’s attempt to declare political parties as legal entities

…applicant to pay State $1M in cost

Acting Chief Justice Roxane George on Monday dismissed a case filed by People’s National Congress (PNC) member, Brian Collison, who in a case described as “very unique and unprecedented” had sought a legal judgement that political parties are legal entities.

According to a statement from the Legal Affairs Ministry, the case was filed in November 2024 by Collison, who was represented by Attorney-at-Law Dr Vivian Williams. Collison’s contention was that the State has outsourced the process of nominating candidates for elections solely to political parties, they perform State functions and those functions must attract strict constitutional scrutiny.
The two sides were at odds over the State’s asserting that the Companies Act is the only legislation that could be used to govern the conduct of political parties which are historically unincorporated associations.
Collison had therefore sought to have the court declare that political parties are legal entities that can be sued and that major political parties perform functions exclusively reserved for the State, which impact the constitutional rights of Guyanese.
He had argued that political parties are not of the same as commercial entities, adding that political parties should be able to sue and be sued, as well as hold property, assume contractual obligations, and enforce rights in their own names.
However, Attorney General Anil Nandlall, who appeared on behalf of the State and was awarded $1 Million in costs by the court, had submitted that the court does not have an inherent jurisdiction to make such declarations. According to Nandlall, “Parliament has to legislate and the court cannot arrogate onto itself the function of the legislature.”
In her ruling, the Chief Justice had noted that to grant the reliefs sought by the Applicant would encroach upon the law. She had noted in her ruling that the Court cannot import into the Constitution the measures that were being sought.
“Moreover, the Court opined that the fact that the Constitution provides for freedom to form political parties does not mean it creates an obligation to clothe them with legal personality. Further, it was ruled that the declaration sought for procedures to be adopted by political parties in determining candidates would require the Court to speculate and be intrusive,” the statement said.
“Importantly, the learned Chief Justice upheld the argument by the Attorney General that there is no evidence of conditions which unduly interfere with the existence of and freedom of parties and therefore, the orders sought were vague and unenforceable.”
Meanwhile, the attorney general in the statement lamented the common practice of lawyers filing cases and proceeding to share those details with the media before serving the documents to the defendants. According to Nandlall, this case is an example of this since he learnt of this matter from the press.