THE President David Granger led Administration, on Friday, said it is confident in the ability of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to deliver a credible report at the end of the National Recount of the March 2020 General and Regional Elections.
A group of US Senators – Marco Rubio, James E. Risch, Benjamin L. Cardin, Robert Menendez and Tim Kaine – in a letter, had lobbied President David Granger for the return of international observers, including those from the Carter Centre, to observe the ongoing National Recount. The US Senators, in the letter, had underscored the importance of having credible international observers present during the recount.
But Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Karen Cummings, in responding to the US Senators on behalf of President Granger, established the Government’s confidence in CARICOM to deliver a credible report on the recount, having scrutinized the process.
“Guyana, equally, is confident in the legitimacy, credibility and competence of the CARICOM Team to perform its task,” the Foreign Affairs Minister told the US Senators in a correspondence on Friday, May 15, 2020 while alluding to the fact that CARICOM sees itself as “the most legitimate interlocutors” in the ongoing electoral process.
The CARICOM high-level scrutinising team, which comprises Senior Lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Cynthia Barrow-Giles; Commissioner of the Antigua and Barbuda Electoral Commission, John Jarvis; and Supervisor of St Vincent Electoral Commission; Sylvester King, arrived in Guyana on May 1 to observe the country’s recount based on an agreement between President Granger and the Leader of Opposition Bharrat in March, 2020.
In proving a background to the presence of the CARICOM delegation here in Guyana, Minister Cummings explained that the President had invited the Prime Ministers of five Caribbean States – Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago – to visit Guyana on 11th and 12th March in light of the post-election challenges that had arisen.
“The President agreed that a High-Level Team, nominated by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and functioning under the aegis of the Elections Commission, would supervise a recount of the ballots cast in the elections. [However] the presence of the team was challenged in the Supreme Court, initially,” the Foreign Affairs Minister explained. A revised team subsequently returned on May 1 after the court paved the way a GECOM supervised recount.
In responding directly to the request for Observers, such as the Carter Centre to return, the Foreign Affairs Minister noted that the Government, in response to the global Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic, promulgated a series of Emergency Measures with effect from March 16. Subsequent Emergency Measures include the imposition of a curfew and the closure of its international airports.
“The Government of Guyana requests that the legitimate decisions it has taken with respect to the rile of the Caribbean Community in the recount of the ballots cast in the General and Regional Elections and the Emergency Measures it has implemented to protect its citizens from the COVID-19 pandemic be respected,” the Foreign Affairs Minister told the Senators, while assuring them her willingness to work with them.
The Senators had applauded the President on his decision to agree to a national recount in the interest of transparency. “The President is pleased to note that International Observer Missions reported that the elections were conducted in a free, fair, and peaceful manner without violence, civil disorder or social disruption. The integrity of Guyana’s democratic institutions – the Constitution, the Supreme Court and the Elections Commission – was never threatened. Delays in declaring the results of the Elections arose after challenges were made in the Supreme Court to the tally in one of the country’s 10 electoral districts. The Court’s rulings have been adhered to,” Dr. Cummings explained.
