PNC Member loses case to have court declare political parties as legal entities that perform State functions

A case that is deemed “very unique and unprecedented” by Attorney General Anil Nandlal was on Monday dismissed by Chief Justice Roxane George. The case filed by PNC member, Brian Collison through his lawyer, Dr Vivian Williams, 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.

The respondents were General Secretary of the PPP Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, Leader of the Opposition Aubrey Norton and the Attorney General.

Nandlall noted that the case is difficult to understand. “Poor me, every day, three times per day they suing me,” he commented during his programme “Issues in the News” on Tuesday.

The case was filed in November 2024 and according to reports, Collison argued that because 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.

Reports stated that the two sides were at odds over the State’s assertion 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 argued that political parties are not of the same as commercial entities.

Additionally, he said political parties should be able to sue and be sued, hold property, assume contractual obligations, and enforce rights in their own names.

However, Nandlall had submitted that the court does not have an inherent jurisdiction to make such declarations. He had said, “Parliament has to legislate and the court cannot arrogate onto itself the function of the legislature.”

The CJ has awarded costs of $1M each to the defendants.

Meanwhile, the Attorney General lamented a common practice for lawyers to file cases and proceed to share those details with the media before serving the documents to the defendants, noting that he learnt of this matter from the press. Therefore, he urges lawyers to do better when cases are filed.