– US committed to partnering with Guyana to support institutional democracy

UNITED States Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah-Ann Lynch, on Wednesday, discussed with the Attorney General and Governance Minister Guyana’s plans in the areas of constitutional reform, legislative reform and electoral reform.

During a meeting at the Attorney General’s Chambers and Ministry of Legal Affairs, the ambassador met with Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira.
The Attorney-General began the meeting by thanking the Ambassador for her, the US Embassy and the USA Government’s critical role in ensuring that the March 2, 2020 results were not derailed.

These sentiments were also echoed by Minister Teixeira, who noted that democracy prevailed and the will of the electorate was respected in the end as a result of the support.

The US Ambassador congratulated Minister Nandlall and Minister Teixeira on their appointments.
She expressed admiration for the legal team that defended the rule of law, constitutionality and democracy during the multiplicity of proceedings that were filed before the declaration of the March 2, 2020 elections results and the swift and able manner in which the cases were prepared, filed and presented.

The Attorney-General updated the US Ambassador on the Government of Guyana’s accomplishments in the less than 100 days that it has been in office.

These, Nandlall noted, included but not limited to the allocation of a budget of approximately $100 billion being re-injected into the economy through various grants, human service outreaches to combat COVID-19 and the numerous tax alleviation measures that have been implemented to bring relief to the Guyanese people.
The US Ambassador commended the Government of Guyana for the signing of the Shiprider Agreement during the historic visit of the Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo.

The envoy emphasised that the agreement assured collaboration between the US and Guyana in monitoring the security of Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone which now and in the future will be the location of a number of Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO’s) vessels and other large investments offshore in the oil and gas sector.

Minister Teixeira spoke of the many deficiencies in the governance apparatus from 2015 to 2020.
Both ministers updated the US Ambassador on the Government of Guyana’s short-term and long-term plans in the areas of constitutional reform, legislative reform and electoral reform.

The US ambassador committed to the US Government partnering to assist and collaborate with the Government of Guyana in a number of key areas, including but not limited to security, security training and enhancement, human services, legislative reform and strengthening Guyana’s institutional democracy to avoid a reoccurrence of the March 2, 2020 elections debacle.

The US ambassador expressed her gratitude for the meeting and the hope that this will be a continuous and regular engagement.