…Harmon tells Carter Center

DIRECTOR-GENERAL of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon has told representatives of The Carter Center that the government is interested in free, fair, credible and peaceful elections in which results are declared in a timely manner allowing the country to continue upwards in its development.

He made the position known to a team from the Center, on Wednesday, which is in Guyana as part of the contingent of international observers for the upcoming General and Regional Elections. The team was headed by Field Office Director of the International Election Observation Mission, Carlos Valenzuela; Legal Analyst, Anne Marlborough and Deputy Field Office Director, Nicholas Jahr.

According to the release from the Ministry of the Presidency, Valenzuela informed Harmon that the team has already met with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC), and the government. They will soon be meeting with political parties once its leadership arrives in the country with the aim of understanding their views on the elections preparations, electoral process and current challenges.

In welcoming the team, Harmon explained that free, fair and credible elections are a part of a democratic process which influences the development of a country. In this regard, he stated: “The government has done all that is humanly possible over the past year to have the Elections Commission adequately equipped and provided with all the necessary resources, without any interference from government to ensure that free, fair and credible elections are held.”

Harmon also said that while some persons seek to cast aspersions on the work of the Commission, the government is confident that it can and will deliver a credible process to the people of Guyana.

“We have depended on GECOM to regulate themselves without giving any directions and we have provided all the resources that they need to carry out their work. We are most confident that the Commission can deliver free, fair and credible elections,” he said.
Harmon noted the government’s hope that the elections results can be declared in a timely and efficient manner, according to the prescriptions of the law, so that the nation’s business can continue as soon as possible post elections. On the question of post-elections violence, the Director General said government is hopeful that this will not take place since there is no place for such violence in the country Guyana is becoming. “There is too much going for Guyana right now, too much positive developments for us to return to that place,” he said.
“Any post-elections violence will take us back decades and we don’t want that. We do not subscribe to it. We have too much to lose as a country if we go back to that abyss.” Meanwhile, Valenzuela said the team is not here to find faults in the Commission or to criticise anyone but to ensure confidence-building in the citizenry and to ensure they are confident in the results that would emerge at the end of the process.