Having admitted that he was not appointed substantive Chief Justice in Grenada but merely acted in the position, Minister of State Joseph Harmon sought to defend Justice James Patterson’s curricula vitae (CV), saying it should pose no problem in him carrying out his duties as Chairman of the Guyana Elections
GECOM Chairman Justice James Patterson
Commission (GECOM).
“The issue of his CV and whether he is substantive or whether he is acting, I don’t know it is something which you should give all of that problems to,” Minister Harmon said in response to questions posed about the matter at the post-Cabinet press briefing on Friday.
According to Patterson’s CV, he served as Chief Justice of Grenada in 1987 after joining the Judiciary in that country four years prior. However, the new GECOM Chairman told reporters on Thursday that he merely had two hours to gather his
State Minister Joseph Harmon
documents before his swearing in ceremony and as such, mistakenly omitted the “acting” in this Chief Justice title.
“I said before that I’ve been appointed acting Chief Justice and they had me acting for a number of years, I didn’t remember… I had a few hours to forge my CV and the ‘ag’ was left out. We call it a slip of the pen – lapsus calami,” the retired Judge told Guyana Times on Thursday.
In defence of Justice Patterson, Minister Harmon nevertheless pointed out that the new GECOM Chairman merely acting as Chief Justice does not take away from the fact that he did provide services as Chief Justice in Grenada.
In fact, the Minister of State posited that many of the top judicial posts in Guyana have had officers acting but their title was never an issue.
“The Chancellor of the Judiciary who just retired was acting at the time when he was retired; we won’t say that he was not the Chancellor of the Judiciary. The current Chancellor is acting, the current Chief Justice is acting so this question about whether you are ‘acting’ and if you can say, you are that or that you have to be confirmed as substantive before you can use the title, I think that it’s something, in my view, that is neither here nor there. The question is that the person has performed in those capacities and he has performed creditably,” the Minister of State noted.
Moreover, Harmon went on to say the notion that Patterson’s appointment will affect the Carter Formula, is nothing but ‘utter nonsense’. He further addressed concerns of elections rigging, saying that the Carter Formula provides for three Commissioners from each political side to be appointed as representatives at GECOM.
“You have three Commissioners sitting there, and you mean to tell me that you will sit there and see this Chairman acting on his own and don’t start to make noise.
Why are we talking now about rigging the elections that are so far away from now. We have so many things that are to be done between now and then, that the world will be looking, you have your Commissioners who will be there; what kind of argument is this… I think it’s really blowing hot air and crying wolf, wolf, wolf, wolf before the actual wolf come and there is no wolf that is going to come,” Harmon posited.
The People’s Progressive Party Opposition believes that the unilateral appointment of Justice Patterson as GECOM Chairman, who they claim is aligned to the People’s National Congress, is paving the way for the rigging of upcoming elections.
However, Justice Patterson denied having any affiliation with the political party but noted that he was friends with its former leader, Desmond Hoyte.
