The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Observer Team for the recount of Guyana’s Regional and General Elections arrived just after 15:00 hrs on Friday and were whisked away to their hotel; their arrival paves the way for the imminent start of the recount.

The team will be briefed on Saturday by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

Members of the team were greeted by health workers when the chartered Trans Guyana Airway flight landed. They were then met on the tarmac of the Eugene F. Correia International Airport by Ambassador Colin Granderson of CARICOM.

Two buses, carrying diplomatic number plates, then drove onto the tarmac to collect the team and they left for their hotel.

The three-member team will be led by Ms Cynthia Barrow-Giles, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies (UWI), and includes Mr John Jarvis, Commissioner of the Antigua and Barbuda Electoral Commission and Mr Sylvester King, Deputy Supervisor of Elections of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Ms Barrow-Giles was a member of the high-level team which came to Guyana in March to participate in a scheduled recount which had to be aborted.

The other members of that team are unavailable for the present mission, CARICOM Chair and Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley said in a statement.

Both Mr Jarvis and Mr King participated in the CARICOM Electoral Observer Mission for the elections held on 2 March 2020.

The Canadian Government supported CARICOM initiative.

“The Community calls on all concerned to ensure a credible and transparent recount process in order to provide legitimacy to any government, which would be sworn in as a result.

“This process must be completed without further delay,” Mottley stated.