FORMER politician Gillian Lucky says she will ’ensure no distraction’ in her new role as a temporary High Court Judge.

Lucky, a candidate with the Congress of the People in the last General Election and a former United National Congress member, was responding to questions from the media after she and Rajiv Persad were sworn in as temporary Judges of the High Court yesterday by President George Maxwell Richards at President’s House, St Ann’s.

Lucky was a Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, and also served as a Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs.

Questioned what the new role meant for her political life, Lucky said she would not be distracted but focus on the ’administration of justice’. She described the appointment as ’a privilege and an honour’ and pledged to show ’allegiance not only to Trinidad and Tobago, but to honour the oath I have taken’.

She was also asked about the speech at the opening of the new law term given by Chief Justice Ivor Archie, who witnessed yesterday’s proceedings, in which he expressed caution about the proposed draft Constitution. Lucky said she endorsed the address and encouraged people to engage in informed discussion and ’lively debate’ on the issue. ’It affects all of us,’ she said.

After taking the oath, Lucky kissed her mother, Cintra, on both cheeks. The elder Lucky told the Express she was ’happy and proud as a mother’ and felt humbled by the experience. She noted there were now two judges in the family, the second being retired Court of Appeal judge, Anthony Lucky, who now serves on the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany.

’God has blessed me and given me the strength...that I needed to come to this point to help them.’

Lucky will serve the first three months of her six-month temporary appointment at the 3rd Criminal Assizes Court in San Fernando.