OPPOSITION Leader Bharrat Jagdeo is expected to meet with President David Granger on the appointment of a substantive chancellor and chief justice next week, after he failed to attend a high-level meeting on Friday on the basis that he was “busy.”

At a People’s Progressive Party (PPP) end-of-year press conference at Freedom House on Friday, the opposition leader disclosed that President Granger, in a letter addressed to him, nominated Justice Kenneth Benjamin for the post of chancellor of the judiciary and Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards for the post of chief justice. According to Jagdeo, a consultative meeting was scheduled for Friday with the President but he (Jagdeo) had informed the Ministry of the Presidency that he was “busy.”
The opposition leader and the President are now expected to meet next week to discuss the nominations. Article 127 of the constitution says: “The Chancellor and the Chief Justice shall each be appointed by the President, acting after obtaining the agreement of the Leader of the Opposition.”

Justice Benjamin, a Guyana-born Belizean chief justice, served as a magistrate in Georgetown in 1980 and 1981, and subsequently an Assistant Judge Advocate for the Guyana Defence Force. The Guyanese scholar has served 17 years as a High Court Judge of the Eastern Caribbean Court (ECC). If appointed chancellor, Justice Benjamin will replace Justice Cummings-Edwards, who has been acting in the post since March, 2017.
Justice Cummings-Edwards, who has previously acted as the chief justice of the country, is expected to take up the substantive position of chief justice. Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire is currently the acting chief justice.

The nominees were selected and recommended to the President by a panel comprising former Justice of Appeal, Claudette Singh; Justice James Patterson and Professor Harold Lutchman.

During his recent press conference, President Granger said every effort is being made to have the appointment made. President of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Sir Dennis Byron, during the Bar Association dinner in November, had underscored the importance of having a substantive chancellor of the judiciary and chief justice in place soon.

Guyana has not had a substantive chancellor of the Judiciary since 2005, mainly due to the fact that the opposition and governing parties have not agreed on candidates for the post. In his address at the 37th Annual Bar Dinner held at the Pegasus Hotel, Georgetown, the CCJ President made it clear that it was not the intention of the local constitution to have the two most senior judicial officials act in the posts for a prolonged period.

Sir Byron noted too that no substantive chancellor has been appointed since Justice Desiree Bernard, Guyana’s first female chancellor, demitted office and was appointed as the first female judge of the CCJ. Former acting Chancellor, Justice Carl Singh, acted in that post from 2005 until his retirement earlier this year. He also stressed the need for substantive appointments in the guarantee of judicial independence to citizens.