Justice Claudette Singh’s 40-year judicial career, including stints as the Deputy Solicitor General, a Puisne Judge and a Justice of Appeal has been marked by professionalism, rectitude and discretion. Her service to the judiciary and nation were recognised in 2017 with the conferring of silk. She was one of only three women to be appointed Senior Counsel in the history of Independent Guyana.
To be a High Court Judge is not an easy job. Judges may handle up to 20 matters in a single day as part of a growing backlog of cases, in large part due to the failure of successive governments to appoint sufficient justices. It requires a level of discipline, efficiency and commitment while often meaning one avoids certain social occasions or public places so as to not be entangled in awkward or even manufactured situations. It is often the case that being a judge will over the years enforce a guardedness in one’s character, even around family and close friends. And then there are those difficult decisions that can profoundly affect the body politic. It is why politicians the world over pay so much attention to judicial appointments and the processes to arrive at them. Despite the failure to appoint a substantive Chief Justice and Chancellor for 17 years, the judiciary at several moments of political crisis has been the grown up in the room. Through its decisions it has asserted its independence and helped to avert violence although the burden on individual judges, many being women, says alot about how deeply dysfunctional our politics remains. Let us hope a day will come when approaches by our political parties to our courts are few and far between.
Prior to her appointment as Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission in 2019 Justice Singh’s possibly most high profile decision was the election petition of 1997.
The matter ran for two years with numerous adjournments granted, along with a multitude of PPP members being brought to Georgetown to testify whatever happened in their rural polling districts. It was not concluded until May 2000 and the verdict not delivered until January of 2021 – a full three years after the election, making it a largely technical exercise.
In her ruling Justice Singh noted that there were “proved unlawful acts or omissions” but she was “unable to hold that illegal voting by persons who were not registered and were without voter ID cards would have per se affected the results of the elections.” She also found that the requirement of the Voter ID card amounted to an unconstitutional barrier to voting. It was this that informed her decision to declare the results null and void but she did not order a change of government. As such it was a ruling that pleased neither side but also did not spark immediate political violence although the early 2000s would see what some describe as “The Troubles” and others as a low level civil conflict.
As Chairperson, the Retired Justice was thrown into the very heart of the election process overseeing the 2020 polls that were precipitated by the shock no confidence motion of December 2018. The March poll, amidst credible reports of rigging in favour of APNU+AFC would result in a five-month impasse to arrive at a winner. At times she seemed in control, at other times not so much, including a mysterious absence as the results were being contested, spurring rumours that she had been kidnapped. Over the months that followed one could see the extreme stress placed upon her. This came about due to the overtly political nature of the commission with its three-a-side composition. Previous chairpersons have managed this flawed format partly by declining to routinely cast deciding votes and emphasising the need for the commission to reach a consensus. This requires patience, some charm and a willingness to engage and work with fellow commissioners to arrive at practical solutions for the organising and holding of polls that is really not that complicated. It is extraordinary how much oxygen and newsprint is dedicated to what is a rather mundane and straightforward exercise although perhaps that is the whole point.
Some chairpersons had the fortune of being affable – of being “people persons”. Dr Steve Surjubally comes to mind with his sharp sense of humour, forthright opinions and perhaps a willingness to accept commissioners as equals.
For Retired Justice Singh one senses instead she has reprised her role as a judge, with appellants for the respective parties looking for favourable decisions that she actually writes out as if back in her chambers. She herself has acknowledged this telling reporters recently “Anything I do, I do in accordance with the law and I try, as a former judge, I always try to uphold the rule of law…There will be criticisms. If you sit on the bench and you make an adverse decision, the party who loses would say you are biased, you take a bribe, whatever..so there is always a way you can criticise a decision. That’s up to them!”
In other words She is the Commission and the Commission is Her.
And while the rule of law is supreme it is not the Alpha and Omega. To be Chairperson demands more than delivering rulings, and currently the Chairperson is simply managing the decline of the credibility of the Guyana Elections Commission as an institution and allowing its capture by the political class.
One also notes the deferment of major decisions such as the timing of local government elections that are now two years overdue. That said, one suspects that neither side is that keen on holding them: the opposition likely fears a drubbing while the PPP/C would see it as an unnecessary expense and a distraction from all this “transformational” stuff it’s busy doing and those overseas trips. Also newly elected councils might get strange ideas about the independence of local government bodies that are unsuitable for a party that commands from the centre.
Then there is the elephant in the room that is the Preliminary List of Electors which currently contains 684,354 names. With the ruling in 2019 by Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George-Wiltshire that the removal of voters via a new house to house registration exercise was unconstitutional it will only be a few more years before the number of registered electors exceeds the entire population, as such becoming somewhat of an embarrassment and rendering the database as serving no purpose. Will the PPP/C at this point keep defending its retention keeping in mind it had itself called for a clean list when it lost office in 2015? The issue of the PLE not only threatens the holding of the LGE but far more disturbing is the very real prospect it will become an impediment to the 2025 elections.
While the country has avoided the worst in recent years it continues to struggle to achieve political stability five decades after independence. The Chairperson has a pivotal role that should not simply be about breaking ties while managing a bad situation. Instead it requires a pro-active, energetic, collegiate and consensual approach that promotes a way out to a better place for the commission and the country. The current status quo is like an ingrown toenail. It festers and it should be remedied.
