Senior Counsel Ralph Ramkarran says that President David Granger’s appointment of James Patterson as Chairman of GECOM is void as the condition required for the constitutional proviso that permits unilateral action was not met.
“The Constitution provides that `if the Leader of the Opposition fails to submit a list as provided for,’ only then can the President proceed unilaterally to make an appointment of a judge, former judge or person qualified to be a judge. My understanding is that the Leader of the Opposition has submitted a list.
The list was amended twice by the substitution of names. If so, the Leader of the Opposition has not failed to submit a list and the President’s appointment is therefore void. But I’m jumping the gun. The talented lawyers associated with the opposition will no doubt examine the matter in more detail’, Ramkarran stated.
In his column in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek, Ramkarran noted that the
