Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams SC, in a recent press release, chided PPP Member of Parliament, Anil Nandlall for his “reckless and churlish” attack on the Judiciary after he lost the appeal against the appointment by President David Granger of Justice retired, James Patterson as Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
Williams says his latest attack on members of the judiciary, three of whom are women, must be condemned.
Statements attributed to Nandlall and his labeling of Chief Justice, Roxanne George-Wiltshire’s ruling as adventurous in the Court of Appeal and him describing two Barbadian Queen’s Counsel as aliens aptly sum up Nandlall’s disrespect, the attorney general posited.
“As Attorney General, I fully support objective comments on judgments handed down by the courts, but these must be measured and respectful without seeking to scandalize the court by describing its decision as political and that the judges who made the decision as immature. This amounts to personal invective and abuse of the judges,” the AG stated.
The Attorney General noted what he describes as the serious deficiency in Nandlall’s psychological framework relating to the ruling despite the “plain and literal language” of Article 161 (2) that the appointment of the Chairman of GECOM is to be done by the President and not the Opposition Leader.
“Therefore, as Head of the bar, I again roundly condemn his behaviour and remain hopeful that the usual commentators and the Guyana Bar Association will see it fit to do same,” AG Williams added.
