2015 after the general election date was announced, to recommend
persons for housing.
If the Peoples Partnership administration did not expedite these
requests to ensure that they were granted before the general
election, then this could, in my view, have led the Honourable Chief
Justice to think that it was not as co-operative and supportive as he
had hoped or expected or worse yet, that the failure to ensure that
his recommendees were granted houses before the general election
amounted to a “snub” or some form of disrespect. If the Honourable
Chief Justice followed up and pursued his recommendation with the
newly elected Peoples National Movement administration, then I
feel that there is a real risk that he could have been biased in favour
of their successful candidates whose elections were the subject of
challenge vis the election petitions in anticipation of a more
favourable response.
The conduct of the Honourable Chief Justice gives rise to real and
substantial concerns of apparent bias and/or apparent unfairness
in relation to the Honourable Chief Justice’s participation in
decisions affecting the election appeals, in favour of the
Government. The danger is of a public perception by many citizens
that the Honourable Chief Justice may have been seeking favors either as a reward or as part of an on-going relationship of favour
– exchanges (if the HDC had already decided whether to grant
housing to the 2015 recommendees), or in order to influence the
HDC (if the HDC had not yet decided the 2015 applications). The risk
is that this perception might be reinforced by the evidence, accepted
by the LATT as having a credible basis, that the Honourable Chief
Justice had played an “…active role” and “…aggressively canvassed
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