…requests high-level team for recount exercise
By Svetlana Marshall
CHAIRPERSON of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh has written the Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Ambassador Irwin LaRocque to request the presence of and ascertain CARICOM’s willingness to have its high-level team return to Guyana during the execution of a National Recount of all the votes cast at the March 2, 2020 Elections.
It was during Tuesday’s meeting of the Commission that Justice Singh informed the six Commissioners that a letter was dispatched to the CARICOM Secretariat located here in Guyana. Official communication was made with CARICOM in light of the April 6 decision of the Elections Commission that it would be prudent to have the Caribbean Community involved in the planned National Recount; not to supervise as previously approved, but to validate the process.
Outside of GECOM’s High and Cowan Streets Head office, Commissioner Vincent Alexander and Commissioner Sase Gunraj, in disclosing that GECOM has officially communicated with CARICOM, agreed that the presence of a high-level CARICOM team would be different from that of a regular Elections Observation Mission (EOM).
GECOM’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) Yolanda Ward, when contacted by the Guyana Chronicle, confirmed the position taken by the Elections Commission.
“The Commission felt that CARICOM’s presence will lend to a greater level of transparency in the process,” Ward told this newspaper.
She, too, confirmed that should a high-level CARICOM team return to Guyana, it will not operate as an EOM. “They will be more integral in the process than what a regular observer is required to do. Their presence in the process is not just as mere observers,” the GECOM PRO posited.
It was explained that while GECOM has issued a correspondence to CARICOM, a formal invitation would have to be sent by the Government of Guyana. “That kind of international invitation needs to come from the level of the Executive. So, once CARICOM agrees that the high-level delegation will return, it means that we will now communicate that to the Executive, so that the invitation can be issued,” Ward explained.
On March 17, 2020, the Elections Commission had approved a CARICOM- supervised recount, but the Court of Appeal, on April 5, made it clear that it would be unconstitutional for CARICOM, or any other authority besides GECOM, to supervise any aspect of the Elections in Guyana. However, days before the judgement of the court, the Elections Commission had agreed to proceed with the recount, but under the supervision of the GECOM.
On the instruction of CARICOM Chairman, Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley, a high-level CARICOM team had arrived in Guyana on March 15 to supervise a planned national recounting of the ballots cast in the March 2 Elections, which had stemmed from an agreement between President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo.
However, on March 17, 2020, the high-level team withdrew from the process, after it was beset by several stumbling blocks. A private citizen, Ulita Moore, secured four injunctions from the High Court to block the recount, on the grounds that it was unconstitutional. Added to that, though President Granger and the Opposition Leader had signed an Aide Memoire agreeing to the recount, CARICOM had requested a legal cover, in the form of a gazzetted order. However, Guyana’s Chief Parliamentary Counsel, Charles Fung-a-Fat, advised against it. According to him, to do so would be to supersede electoral laws, and infringe on the rights of electors.
The independent high-level team was chaired by former Attorney-General and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Dominica, Ms. Francine Baron, and comprised former Minister of Finance of Grenada, Mr. Anthony Boatswain; Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government of UWI Ms. Cynthia Barrow-Giles; Chief Electoral Officer of Barbados Ms. Angela Taylor; and Chief Elections Officer of Trinidad and Tobago Ms. Fern Narcis-Scope.
Days after the Appellate Court had ruled, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Keith Rowley, while expressing deep concern over the electoral challenges facing Guyana, said CARICOM stands committed to assist GECOM in the execution of the recount. He had formed part of a team of CARICOM Heads of Government that had met with President Granger and the Opposition Leader in the lead-up to the agreement, after the tabulation of the votes in District Four had encounter red challenges.
