The Leader of the Opposition, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, met with President David Granger this morning at 10:00 a.m. at State House to discuss the appointment of a substantive Chancellor and Chief Justice.
The Leader of the Opposition was accompanied by Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira and Member of Parliament and Attorney-at-Law, Priya Manickchand, while the President was accompanied by Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams, and Minister of State, Joseph Harmon.
In a short release Teixeira detailed that, “in keeping with article 127 (1) which states that ‘the Chancellor and the Chief Justice shall each be appointed by the President, acting after obtaining the agreement of the Leader of the Opposition’, the meeting agreed that the two leaders will meet again on February 7th, 2018 to follow up on the proposed names for appointment of the Chancellor and Chief Justice.”
The Ministry of the Presidency also detailed that in addition to discussing the appointment of a substantive Chancellor and Chief Justice, nominees for the Teaching and Judicial Service Commissions were discussed.
The meeting was organised after President David Granger announced at his first press conference in two years, that he has accepted a proposal from a Committee that had been set up to review and interview applicants interested in the top judicial post after it was advertised locally, regionally and internationally.
Granger said on that occasion, that he had already contacted the recommended individual who later accepted the nomination. It was later revealed that the person, the President favoured, was Justice Kenneth Benjamin, who currently serves as the Chief Justice of Belize.
While Jagdeo would not offer any other comments on his initial position on the suitability of the proposed candidate or whether he felt the process to arrive at a nominee was transparent and fair, he did say that even though the President has to make the first move to resolve the decade-long delay in appointing a substantive Chancellor and Chief Justice, he will not allow himself to be coerced into accepting nominees just to fix the situation.
