Akash Sama­roo

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says she hopes the Caribbean Court of Jus­tice (CCJ) can “sort them­selves out soon” amid con­tro­ver­sy sur­round­ing the re­gion­al court’s lead­er­ship, but has de­clined to say whether her Gov­ern­ment re­mains con­fi­dent that the court can fair­ly de­ter­mine the dis­pute over the reap­point­ment of Cari­com Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Dr Car­la Bar­nett.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar took this stance yes­ter­day, af­ter be­ing asked by Guardian Me­dia whether Gov­ern­ment re­mained con­fi­dent in the CCJ’s abil­i­ty to fair­ly han­dle the Bar­nett mat­ter, giv­en al­le­ga­tions sur­round­ing the court’s in­ter­nal ad­min­is­tra­tion, in­clud­ing claims of ju­di­cial “pan­el-fix­ing” and at­tempts to in­flu­ence judg­ments.