“We are not at that stage yet” – Pres Ali on top judicial appointments

President Dr Irfaan Ali has once again indicated that he will deal with the substantive appointments of the Chancellor and Chief Justice (CJ) when the time is right, and after the various service commissions are established.
He reiterated this position on Wednesday whilst fielding questions from members of the media.

“We’re not at the stage of addressing those issues as yet,” the Head of State explained, when asked for an update on the top judicial appointments.
“There’s nothing stalling it. It’s just that we’ve not commenced addressing that as yet.”
According to President Ali, there are other matters engaging his attention.
“I am trying to complete the Judicial Service Commission; these things must be in place almost instantaneously now that we have the clearance. We’re hoping to have the Teaching Service Commission fully constituted and in effect, we’re hoping to have the Public Service Commission fully in effect…then we’ll move our focus…,” he explained.
President Ali had previously told the media that, “we have no issues appointing (the Chancellor and Chief Justice), but when the right time comes, we will have the consultations on the Chancellor and the Chief Justice.”
Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton has since expressed his support for the confirmation of Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards as Chancellor and Justice Roxane George as Chief Justice.
They are currently acting in their respective positions.

Formula
Over two decades after a constitutional amendment was made to allow the two top judicial office holders to be appointed by the President after receiving agreement from the Opposition Leader, Guyana remains without a substantive Chancellor of the Judiciary and Chief Justice.
The procedure for the appointment of Chancellor and Chief Justice are outlined in Article 127 (1) and (2) of the Constitution of Guyana. It states therein: “The Chancellor and the Chief Justice shall be appointed by the President after obtaining the agreement of the Leader of the Opposition.”
During the opening of the April 2022 Demerara Criminal Assizes, the President of the Guyana Bar Association, Pauline Chase called for the formula for appointing the top judicial office holders to be reformed.
“…those who the duty so falls to start the consultative process and put into motion the machinery to address the correction of this unworkable and failed formula… It is, therefore, inimical to the rule of law that there are acting appointments of our highest judicial officers. The absence of confirmed judicial officers since the amendment of the Constitution for their appointments some 20 years ago is no clearer evidence that that system is not working,” Chase said.
Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC had responded to Chase, conceding that the current formula that requires consensus between the President and the Opposition Leader has not worked in the more than two decades it was put in place.
He explained that since the addition of this provision to the Constitution in 2001, a sitting President has been unable to secure the agreement of the Opposition Leader on either of those appointments. Luckily, he added, an adjustment was made for an alternative if there is no agreement between the President and the Opposition Leader, that is, for the President to make acting appointments. The fact that Guyana has been unable to make substantive appointments in these two offices is “an unfortunate state of affairs”, Nandlall had expressed.
Guyana’s last substantive Chancellor of the Judiciary was Justice Desiree Bernard who served from 2001 to 2005 when she demitted office to serve as a Judge of the CCJ which was inaugurated on April 16 of that year.
After then, several other Judges were appointed to act in the position including Justice Cummings-Edwards, who was sworn in by former President David Granger on March 27, 2017, following the retirement of Justice Carl Singh, who was also never confirmed in the post. Justice George was also sworn in to act as Chief Justice on March 27, 2017, following the retirement of the late Justice Ian Chang, SC.

Previous Efforts
Referencing a lawsuit filed by the Opposition over the nonappointment of the top judicial positions, Nandlall during his recent programme – Issues in the News – recalled previous efforts made by past PPP Presidents to substantively fill those posts.
He reminded that the then President Bharrat Jagdeo had on many occasions attempted to engage the then Leader of the Opposition Robert Corbin to secure an agreement to confirm the appointments of Chief Justice Carl Singh as Chancellor as Justice Ian Chang as Chief Justice.
“There are several meetings that were held, several letters exchanged and Mr Corbin refused to give his agreement either to confirm Chancellor Singh or to confirm Chief Justice Chang,” Nandlall posited.
He noted that these efforts were made by Jagdeo up until 2011 when Donald Ramotar became President. Ramotar too, Nandlall recalled, made every effort to engage the then Opposition Leader David Granger on the substantive appointments but Granger also refused.
When Granger became President in 2015, Nandlall reminded that before he went ahead and appointed Justice George and Justice Cummings-Edwards to act in their respective positions, he had attempted to bring someone from outside of Guyana to fill the position of Chancellor.
Nandlall argued too that this process of the top judicial appointments is initiated by the Head of State and that during Granger’s tenure, he never attempted to kickstart the process.
“President Granger, not once, ever attempted to engage Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo from 2015 to 2020 in respect of securing an agreement for the persons acting in the Office of Chief Justice and Officer of Chancellor,” the attorney general said. (G11)