Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall, SC, has given the Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) until November 14, 2025, to pay up $4 million in court-ordered costs, or face the consequences. Speaking during his weekly Issues in the News programme, Nandlall confirmed that his Chambers issued formal letters demanding payment following the ruling of the Court of Appeal earlier this month.
“In advance, we have sent out letters demanding payment in compliance with the order on or before November 14. That is $2 million to the Attorney General and $2 million to GECOM, that’s $4 million,” he said pointedly. The Attorney General made it clear that if the FGM fails to comply, his office is prepared to take “decisive steps” to recover the money, though he stopped short of revealing the exact measures that will be used.
The payment order follows the October 5, 2025 decision of the Court of Appeal, which dismissed FGM’s appeal against the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) over its exclusion from the September 1, 2025, elections in Regions Seven, Eight, and Nine. The court ruled that GECOM acted lawfully when it left the party off the ballot because it failed to submit candidate lists for those areas.
Delivering the ruling, Chancellor (ag.) Justice Roxane George described the appeal as “without merit” and upheld the High Court’s decision, ordering FGM to pay the legal costs to both GECOM and the Attorney General by mid-November.
The original case, heard by Chief Justice (ag.) Navindra Singh, had also found the FGM’s arguments baseless, noting that GECOM’s decision complied fully with electoral law. But the appeal, filed by FGM representative Krystal Fisher, claimed the Chief Justice “erred in law” by refusing to include smaller parties on ballots in regions where they had not fielded candidates, a claim that both the High Court and Court of Appeal rejected outright.
“Navindra Singh told them their case was hopeless, completely without merit, and ridiculous,” Nandlall recalled during his broadcast. “The Court of Appeal went further, they said it was ludicrous, wholly without merit, and an abuse of the process. The judges even accused the party and its lawyers of not being candid and withholding information. It was a tongue-lashing of the highest order.”
Despite back-to-back defeats, FGM is refusing to back down. The party has now filed an application seeking leave to appeal to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), while also lodging an election petition in the High Court, both moves that Nandlall dismissed as “another round of legal misadventure.”
According to the Attorney General, his Chambers has already filed a summons to strike out the election petition on multiple procedural grounds, including failure to obtain leave from the High Court, failure to name all necessary parties, and failure to properly serve the petition within the legal timeframe.
“The court has already spoken, twice,” Nandlall said bluntly. “Now, they’re trying to relitigate a hopeless case and ignore lawful orders. But make no mistake: if they don’t pay, the state will enforce every dollar owed.” As the deadline approaches, the Forward Guyana Movement finds itself under mounting legal and financial pressure, and a clear warning from the Attorney General: “The court has ruled, and the law will be enforced. No exceptions.”
