And from the members of the commission to the Chief Justice - we told you that Acting Chief Justice, Michelle Arana, will be replaced with a new Guyanese CJ, Justice Louise Esther Blenman in an enhanced role heading what will be called The High Court.
But this news was not taken too kindly by the public, many of whom felt that Justice Arana should have been appointed, since she was acting in the role for two years.
But the PM emphasized today that she couldn't get the job since she didn't put in an application.
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"It was a very open and transparent process, I don't think the previous government had as transparent a process as we did. As you know we have restructured the entire justice system, we want to have amore effective and efficient justice system and so we advertised for that post, we advertised both locally and internationally. And the attorney general set up a team of her peers from the Bar Association to interview all those that applied. As what I was told, 8 persons applied, for one reason or the other, Acting Justice Arana didn't apply. So the Bar could only interviewed those that applied if Acting Justice Aran would have applied, she would have gone through the very same process. When that process finished, that's when the attorney general then came to me and said, this is the recommendation that was made to me by the bar. There was no political interference and I think that is what you all should look at, the importance that there was no political interference. We know in the previous government, there was a lot of political interference into the court system. We promised that we're not going to do that and we're keeping to our word."
"There are openings in the Court of Appeal, and she expressed interest in the Court of Appeal, as I said, I have never had any such discussion with Justice Arana. The recommendation was made about her going to the Court of Appeal, and I accepted that recommendation."
