Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall has asserted that the ongoing impasse regarding the substantive appointments of a Chief Justice and Chancellor of the Judiciary was created by the Peoples National Congress (PNC).
The last confirmed Chief Justice was Desiree Bernard, who served from 1996 to 2001; she also served as Chancellor from 2001 to 2005. Chancellor of the Judiciary Yonette Cummings and Chief Justice Roxane George have been acting in those top judicial positions for years.
During his weekly programme ‘Issues in the News’ on Tuesday evening, Nandlall reminded that in 2001, Guyana’s Constitution was changed to introduce the requirement for consensus between the president and opposition leader for the appointments of the Chancellor and Chief Justice.
“Since we changed it, we have never had an agreement between the President and the Leader of the Opposition,” the Attorney General said.
The procedure for the appointment of the Chancellor and Chief Justice is outlined in Article 127 (1) of the Constitution, and it states: “The Chancellor and the Chief Justice shall be appointed by the President after obtaining the agreement of the Leader of the Opposition.”
Nandlall pointed out that it has been more than 21 and 17 years respectively since Guyana has had a confirmed Chief Justice and Chancellor.
In 2001, Justice Carl Singh was appointed the first acting Chief Justice.
According to Nandlall, “from 2001 to 2005, [then President Dr Bharrat] Jagdeo made several attempts to get the Leaders of the Opposition Desmond Hoyte and Robert Corbin to get their agreement to confirm him [Justice Carl Singh] but that never materialised.”
Today, the Parliamentary Opposition – comprising the Peoples National Congress led A Partnership for National Unity as well as the Alliance For Change – has been calling on the president to initiate talks with Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton on the confirmation of the Chancellor and Chief Justice.
But Nandlall went on to remind that when Justice Bernand was elevated to the Caribbean Court of Justice in 2005, Justice Carl Singh was appointed to act as Chancellor and Justice of Appeal Ian Chang was appointed to act as Chief Justice.
Repeated efforts to have them substantively confirmed in those positions by President Jagdeo as well as President Donald Ramotar, proved futile as the PNC-led Opposition Leaders continued to withhold consent.
When Justice Chang retired in 2015, Justice Cummings was appointed to act as Chief Justice. Following the retirement of Justice Singh in 2017, Justice Cummings was promoted to act as Chancellor while Justice George was appointed to act as Chief Justice.
Though the Opposition is now calling for the women to be confirmed, Nandlall reminded that then President David Granger, who led the APNU+AFC Government at the time, never sought to do same in his term.
“In 2019, there was one attempt by Granger requesting [then Opposition Leader Jagdeo’s] agreement to make a Chief Justice in Belize the Chancellor in Guyana. He was never prepared to confirm Madame Chief Justice Yonnette Cummings-Edwards the Chancellor of the Judiciary,” Nandlall pointed out.
President Dr Irfaan Ali has already assured that the appointments of a substantive Chancellor of the Judiciary and Chief Justice will be dealt with at the appropriate time.
