Following an invitation sent on April 29 by President Irfaan Ali to Leader of the Opposition Aubrey Norton, the two yesterday met in their official capacities for the first time and a number of preliminaries were clarified on appointments to constitutional commissions.
Present at the meeting along with the two men were Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall SC and APNU+AFC Shadow Attorney General, Roysdale Forde SC.
With Norton requesting that the curriculum vitae of proposed appointees be provided for perusal prior to future discussions, President Ali has agreed to make those documents available to him within two days.
“We agreed to engage. We have now engaged and agreed that documents would be provided to us,” Norton told the media, after emerging from Office of the President after 5:30pm, following the meeting that began at 3:00pm yesterday.
Asked why the CVs were a prerequisite and of importance, Norton first said, “When I see the CVs I will tell you why.” Pressed for an explanation, given the request for the documents came from him, he added, “Because you need to know about people. We need the CVs because the whole process of meaningful consultation is defined in law… which says you need time to assess. So the CVs are needed. And once we get the CVs, we will do what we have to do. That is it basically.”
“All I want to see is everything happen in keeping with law and keeping with the constitution. I think we have been able to make this point [to government]. And moving forward, we will operate in keeping with the constitution and what meaningful consultations are.”
As reporters attempted to ask questions concerning the meeting, a representative from the Department of Public Information (DPI) shouted out asking Norton if he had “brought the winning SOPs” (Statements of Poll) from the 2020 general elections.
The DPI representative continued to persist with his line of questioning, to which a seemingly agitated Norton finally responded, “Can I say this to you? Can you bring, at any point and time a piece of clip where I said I have winning SOPs, [because] I did not. Somebody reported that.”
He then entered a waiting vehicle and was driven a short distance to Forde’s vehicle and the two departed.
Norton had said that he did not believe yesterday’s forum should be restricted to constitutional matters but should also include issues affecting both government and the opposition.
When he had been asked if the president refused to engage him on matters outside of the constitutionally mandated agenda, what happens, Norton had said that he is of the view that President Ali is “a reasonable man” but added that if the meeting’s agenda is confined then “I will deal with it at that time.”
It is unclear if he was able to raise this point with the President.
This newspaper understands that the meeting finished around 3:40 pm but the leaders were engaged in the crafting and approval of a joint statement.
That statement was released as Norton was leaving the Office of the President compound.
It detailed that there was correspondence between the two sides prior to yesterday’s meeting and that the CVs for constitutional appointees were to be provided to the Leader of the Opposition.
“The Consultations in respect of the appointments of persons to constitutional and statutory commissions, were initiated between His Excellency President Mohamed Irfaan Ali and Leader of the Opposition and Member of Parliament, Mr. Aubrey C. Norton by letter under the hand of the Hon. Gail Teixeira, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance and Member of Parliament, dated April 29, 2022. This letter fixed today, the 13th May at 15:00h, for an in person consultation,” the joint statement informed.
“…Prior to today’s meeting, the Leader of the Opposition by letter dated 9th May 2022, requested details of the appointments to be made. Minister Teixeira responded on 11 May, 2022 providing the details of the Commissions and the names of the persons who are the subject of the consultations to be appointed to those Commissions. These are Integrity Commission, the Judicial Service Commission, Police Service Commission and Teaching Service Commission. The Leader of the Opposition in a letter dated the 12th May, requested further information regarding the names under consideration. On the same day Minister Teixeira responded requesting specificity on the information that is being requested. At the meeting held today, the Leader of the Opposition clarified that the information that is being requested are the Curriculum Vitae (CV’s) of the persons under consideration and the President agreed to make those CV’s available within two days,” it added.
The statement said that during the meeting, it was further agreed that the “consultations will be guided by the Constitution and the in-person consultations will resume on a date to be fixed, but within a week”.
Under the laws of this country, the President and the Opposition Leader must hold consultations, guided by the respective clauses, for the appointment of the Commissioner of Police, Chancellor of the Judiciary, and Chief Justice.
Ali had refused to meet the previous Leader of the Opposition, Joseph Harmon on the grounds that he did not recognise the government. That condition was later dropped but there was no meeting as the PNCR held internal elections and Harmon was defeated in the contest for party leader by Norton. Harmon subsequently resigned under pressure from within the PNCR but it would be weeks before Norton was officially added to the opposition parliamentary lineup. He was then elected Opposition Leader.
A number of commissions also require consultations before they can be established and these include the Public Service Commission, the Judicial Service Commission, and the Teaching Service Commission.
Clifton Hicken was recently appointed by Ali to act as Commissioner of Police while the judiciary has been without a substantive Chancellor for 17 years. The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has expressed concern about this matter over the years and only recently its president, Justice Adrian Saunders, called for the substantive appointment of a Chancellor of the Judiciary and a Chief Justice before the end of this year.
