Formula in the appointment of top judicial officers has not worked – AG

Guyana has been without a substantive Chief Justice and Chancellor of the Judiciary for almost 20 years because of a lack of consultation between the President and Leader of the Opposition.

Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall said during his Tuesday night programme ‘Issues in the News’ that the formula for the appointment of these judicial posts 'makes no sense.'

Attorney General, Anil Nandlall.

“It makes no sense putting into law or worse yet putting into a constitution, a mechanism that is going to cause deadlock and here you have had a deadlock now for 22 years, 2 decades.” The Attorney General believes that only Constitutional Reform could fix the deadlock.

“All I am saying, I’m stating the facts, the formula has not worked, we are embarking on a constitutional reform exercise soon and I hope that we can learn from our current experience.” Nandlall‘s comment comes after President of the Guyana Bar Association Pauline Chase on Tuesday said the absence of the top judicial officers affects Guyana’s standing on the rule of law index.

“I, therefore, call on and urge all those on 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.” Former President David Granger in 2017, appointed Justice Yonette Cummings Edwards to act in the capacity of the Chancellor and Roxane George to act in the capacity of the Chief Justice.