A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Member of Parliament and Shadow Minister of Legal Affairs, Roysdale Forde S.C, dispatched a letter Monday, July 4th to Minister Gail Teixeira, nailing the constitutional distortion of President Irfaan Ali in appointing Clifton Hicken, acting Commissioner of Police, without having meaningful consultation with Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton.
Representing and writing on behalf of the Opposition Leader, in a letter seen by Village Voice, Forde counselled Teixeira of the necessity for clarity regarding her June 29th letter, given the court has been approached to adjudicate on the matter. The Opposition is asking the court to set aside the appointment of Hicken, the unilateral appointment of the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, and questioning the lawfulness of the constitution of the Police Service Commission.
The Opposition noted Teixeira’s correspondence, seeking to have the President engage the Opposition Leader on constitutional appointments, despite the matters before the court, has assumed greater significance. Hence, the Opposition laid out conditions for engaging in meaningful consultation. They have requested in writing answers to the following questions:
“1. Is the President seeking to exercise his Constitutional duty on two separate occasions to appoint Mr. Clifton Hicken ‘… to act in the office of Commissioner of Police of the Guyana Police Force’?
- What is the basis of and the Constitutional provisions which conferred on the President the Constitutional duty that you referred to that he exercised which resulted in the said decision ‘to appoint Mr. Clifton Hicken to act in the office of Commissioner of Police with effect from the 30thday of March 2022?’
- If indeed, there is no error in your letter with respect to the declaration that the President did in fact consider ‘it his Constitutional duty to appoint Mr. Clifton Hicken to act in the office of Commissioner of Police, with effect from the 30thday of March 2022,’ can you please indicate the basis and authority for the President to exercise his Constitutional duty again?”
The Opposition Leader requires the President’s attention on the aforesaid which is deemed “necessary and prerequisite” for “engaging in any process of meaningful consultation with regards to the appointment of a person to act in the office of Commissioner of Police of the Guyana Police Force.”
Or, as stated in the missive, “In other words, [the Opposition Leader] would only consider engaging in meaningful consultation when he is in possession of the answers to the aforesaid questions and has had time to consider them and advise himself further.”
President Ali is yet to respond.
