President Irfaan Ali yesterday gave no indication of when he would meet Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed on the long-delayed substantive appointments of a Chancellor and Chief Justice, saying only that he would comply with his constitutional responsibilities.
At a press conference, Ali was asked whether he would seek Mohamed’s agreement to appoint acting Chancellor Roxane George-Wiltshire SC and acting Chief Justice Navindra Singh substantively.
The President did not say whether he supported their confirmation.
“In relation to consultation with the Leader of the Opposition, already Minister [Gail] Teixeira has written on different matters that constitutionally we should write on in relation to the Leader of the Opposition, and those matters are being dealt with,” Ali said.
He added: “Wherever consultation is required in accordance with the Constitution, as I said before, you can be assured that I will fulfil my mandate in accordance with the Constitution.”
Ali did not identify the matters contained in the correspondence from Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Minister Teixeira or say whether the judicial appointments were among them.
Article 127(1) of the Constitution requires more than consultation for the two substantive appointments. It provides that the Chancellor and Chief Justice are appointed by the President after he has obtained the agreement of the Leader of the Opposition.
The impasse has persisted for more than two decades. Guyana has not had a substantive Chancellor since Justice Désirée Bernard left the post in 2005, while no substantive Chief Justice has been appointed since she vacated that office in 2001.
Justices George-Wiltshire and Singh were sworn in on August 4, 2025, to perform the duties of Chancellor and Chief Justice, respectively. Justice George-Wiltshire continued as acting Chancellor and Singh as acting Chief Justice after Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards proceeded on early retirement later that year.
The manner of Justice Cummings-Edwards’s departure generated controversy. She had served as acting Chancellor from 2016, while Justice George-Wiltshire had acted as Chief Justice from 2017.
It was earlier reported that former Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton wrote to the government in May 2022 expressing agreement with the substantive appointment of justices Cummings-Edwards as Chancellor and George-Wiltshire as Chief Justice. Ali did not act on that proposal.
More recently, the process attracted renewed controversy after Norton alleged that Caribbean Court of Justice President Justice Winston Anderson had contacted him in an attempt to secure his agreement to the appointment of justices George-Wiltshire as Chancellor and Singh as Chief Justice.
Norton said he regarded the intervention as inappropriate and ended the engagement after becoming concerned that Justice Anderson had moved beyond the role of an impartial intermediary.
Justice Anderson subsequently acknowledged intervening in an effort to break the deadlock.
A Kiskadee Watch editorial argued that the CCJ President had risked appearing to advance the preferred nominees of one side instead of acting as an independent broker. Norton’s earlier position had been that justices Cummings-Edwards and George-Wiltshire should be confirmed in the posts they then occupied.
With Justice Cummings-Edwards now retired and Mohamed having replaced Norton as Opposition Leader, any substantive appointments would require an agreement between Ali and Mohamed.
Ali yesterday neither committed to initiating that process nor explained why, after years in office, he had still not secured substantive appointments to the two highest judicial posts.
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