…President grants Jagdeo time to study nominees

PRESIDENT David Granger and Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo are to meet again next month for a another round of consultation on the appointment of a substantive chancellor of the judiciary and a chief justice after Wednesday’s meeting saw the latter asking for more time to consider the nominees of the Head of State for the top judicial posts.

The President was accompanied by Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams S.C. and the Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, while Opposition Members of Parliament, Gail Teixeira and Priya Manickchand accompanied the Opposition Leader.

Belize Chief Justice, Kenneth Benjamin, who is Guyanese by birth, was nominated by the head of state to hold the post of Chancellor, while acting Chancellor Yonette Cummings-Edwards was nominated for the post of Chief Justice. Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire is currently serving as the acting Chief Justice.

Justice Benjamin had 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 has previously acted as the 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. The President had written to the Opposition Leader, informing him of the two persons to be appointed as Chancellor and Chief Justice and Jagdeo is also in receipt of their respective resumes. In a brief comment after the meeting, Minister Harmon informed that the Opposition requested more time to conduct their own due diligence regarding the two nominees.

“He requested a month to do due diligence which the President graciously agreed to…and we expect to meet again on February 7, when we will have that matter finalised,” the Ministry of the Presidency quoted the Minister as saying. Article 127 of the Constitution of Guyana states that the Chancellor and the Chief Justice shall be appointed by the President acting after obtaining the agreement of the Leader of the Opposition; it is as a result of this constitutional provision that President David Granger is bound to meet with the Opposition Leader on the matter.

It is expected that at the next meeting, the Opposition Leader is likely to indicate his agreement with the nominees put forward by the President. Guyana has been without a substantive Chancellor since 2005 since the then Chancellor, Desiree Bernard, retired and took up the post as judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) the same year.

The non-appointment of a substantive Chancellor and Chief Justice is a result of the government and opposition sides not agreeing to the candidates for the post. Should the Opposition Leader reject the initial nominees of the head of state, he (the President) may very well have to return to the drawing board and make additional nominees.

Meanwhile, during his press conference in December, 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.