Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton is renewing his calls for the Acting Chancellor and the Acting Chief Justice to be confirmed in their positions.

For a Chancellor and Chief Justice to be appointed, there must be agreement between the President and the Opposition Leader. The Opposition Leader has already indicated his support of the two Judges currently acting in the top judicial posts.

Mr. Norton said he has noted the President’s haste to confirm the appointment of a Police Commissioner, who has already passed the age of requirement, while refusing to confirm the appointment of the Chancellor and Chief Justice.

Guyana has not had a substantive Chancellor for almost two decades.

Justice Yonette Cummings has been the acting Chancellor since 2017. She took over from Justice Carl Singh, who acted from 2005-2017. Justice Roxanne George has also been acting as Chief Justice since 2017.

At a press conference today, Mr. Norton said very early in his term as Leader of the Opposition, he informed the President that he is in agreement with the confirmation of Justices Cummings and George to the top judicial posts.  

Two years after, those substantive appointments are still pending.

“If they were two people who they sure they can control and dominate, they would have been appointed already. And they are annoyed when people talk about ethnicity but what they are doing, it is leading some people to believe that it also has an ethnic dimension,” the Opposition Leader said.  

He said instead of confirming Justices Cummings and George to the top judicial posts, President Ali in an unconstitutional move confirmed Hicken as the Commissioner of Police. 

The Opposition Leader said he was never consulted and intends to challenge the appointment in the Court. 

Norton said while the Chief Justice ruled on Hicken’s appointment as an acting Police Commissioner, it never ruled on the appointment of a substantive Commissioner of Police. 

“The Government is misusing that ruling to suggest that they could appoint him substantively, and that’s why we say we are going to go to court on the issue because he should not have been appointed,” Norton said. 

He confirmed that the President wrote him with the intention of initiating consultation on the appointment but was advised to launch an investigation into the allegations of widespread corruption in the Guyana Police Force under Hicken’s leadership as the acting Commissioner. 

“The President did send me a letter asking for consultation. I responded to him saying that what is necessary is an investigation into the corruption in the Guyana Police Force, and not any consultation and appointment because there is a rule which says that if you are implicated in illegalities, you cannot be up for appointment. But like I said, these are the people they like to confirm because they can hold it against them,” the Opposition Leader said. 

He said apart from there being no consultation, and the issue of age, Hicken has demonstrated “grave incompetence” with the Force facing multiple allegations of corruption under his watch. He too has been accused on engaging in corrupt practices.

“Newly sworn in (illegally we might add) Commissioner of Police Clifton Hicken has not been investigated for his relationship with Deputy Commissioner Calvin Brutus, who is facing a wide range of charges, even though he admits that he was involved in collecting money from “stakeholders” for Brutus’s wedding. By this act the PPP has signalled that they are comfortable with, and complicit in corruption,” Norton said. 

He said instead, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has opted to cover up corruption in the Force. He said it was only because of public pressure that charges were laid against Assistant Commissioner of Police (ag) Calvin Brutus. 

The Government has dismissed the Opposition Leader’s contention and has stated that it will fight any attempt to challenge the appointment.

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