With President Irfaan Ali maintaining that there are persons performing the functions of the Chancellor and Chief Justice while dodging questions on the substantive appointments, Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton today said he is convinced that the President has shut the door on confirming Justice Yonette Cummings as the Chancellor and Justice Roxane George as Chief Justice.

The two have been acting in the positions since 2017, and although the Opposition Leader has offered his full support to their confirmation, the President has not budged on the issue.

In an interview with News Source today, Mr. Norton said after he initially offered his full support for the two Judges to be confirmed to the top judicial posts, the President and Government turned away from the issue.

“If I wrote you a formal letter, saying this consultation is due. I am prepared to agree to these two people, and your response is, it is not within the purview of the Opposition Leader to suggest. It means that the President, himself, has said look, don’t engage me unless I engage you. So, for him, to now come and say, I can pick up the phone and call him, he is being disingenuous and ridiculous,” the Opposition Leader said.

Under the Constitution of Guyana, there must be agreement between the President and the Opposition Leader on the appointment of a Chancellor and Chief Justice.

President Ali last Saturday said he had eight formal communications with the Opposition Leader on vaious constitutional appointments.

Mr. Norton said those exchanges were in the form of letters and there were no meaningful consultations, as mandated by the Constitution.

“Meaningful consultation for me, has to mean look, one the information is provided, two, background checks are done especially for political affiliation because a democratic society assumes that independent means independent. If the Teaching Service Commission is going to be independent, tell me how are you going to have a PPP activist from Linden on that Commission; tell me how, the chairman of this Commission is operating out of the Office of the President,” Norton reasoned.

 Norton told News Source that notwithstanding the Government’s posture towards the Opposition, he is still prepared to sit down with the President to discuss issues of national importance, including the other constitutional appointments, the rise in cost of living, the use of the country’s oil revenues, and allocation of contracts among other important topics.

“It is not my intention to meet the President just for the sake of meeting. It has to discuss the critical issues. And so, I am prepared to meet. Ethnic discrimination is a serious issue in this country. He makes a lot of noise about the shaking of the hands, but the issues that have led to that have got to be resolved. I am not prepared to engage just for the sake of engaging,” Norton said.

He said a large part of the population has been marginalized, and victimized, and that too must be addressed.

“We have a situation in this country, where PPP operatives are walking around with State funds, millions of dollars and distributing it to achieve political ends, in which, there will be no proper paper trail. And, therefore, the President and his Government, by the very nature of the operation, they are encouraging corruption. So, any serious discussion has to deal with corruption. It has to deal with how you utilize the resources from oil and gas in this country,” the Opposition Leader said.

According to the Opposition Leader, the Government has been abusing its powers, from the Executive to the National Assembly.

He said the Government still has time to get it right.

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