March 16 ,2020
The Organization of American States (OAS) General Secretariat yesterday welcomed the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) deployment of a high-level mission to supervise a recount of the ballots from the March 2 general and regional elections here.
CARICOM Chairman, Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, on Saturday announced that President David Granger made a request for CARICOM to field an independent high-level team to supervise the recounting of the ballots in all regions, and that this was agreed to by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo. The team arrived in Guyana yesterday but up to last evening the recount had not yet started. A controversial tabulation process for Region Four has been discredited by observers and nearly all of the contesting parties, except for the incumbent APNU+AFC coalition and had prompted claims of fraud.
The OAS’ Electoral Observation Mission on March 13 withdrew from the country saying that the tabulation process for Region Four was not transparent and warned that the legitimacy of any government installed in these circumstances will be open to question.
In a statement yesterday, the OAS General Secretariat noted that on the invitation of the Government of Guyana, it deployed an Electoral Observation Mission to the March 2 polls and the team observed the Disciplined Services vote on February 21, and the wider process on Election Day. In its preliminary statement, issued on March 3, 2020, the mission commended the electoral authorities of Guyana on an orderly and well executed voting process, the statement recalled.
It said that the mission was present at the Office of the Returning Officer in Region Four from the close of the polls on March 2 and witnessed the several challenges there that “prevented a proper, transparent and credible tabulation” of the votes for that region. Statements issued by the mission called on the electoral authorities to tabulate the results for Region Four as prescribed in Guyana’s legislation and, following the ruling of the Chief Justice on March 11, to comply with her orders in this regard. This did not happen, the statement said.
“In a statement on March 12, the OAS Chief of Mission, Bruce Golding, former Prime Minister of Jamaica, expressed his concern that the tabulation process lacked transparency. Following the Returning Officer’s continued defiance of the Chief Justice’s orders on March 13, in facilitating an open and transparent verification of the Statements of Poll, the Chief of Mission expressed his further concern that the process was unlikely to produce a credible result and withdrew the Mission from Guyana,” the statement recalled.
It said that Golding informed OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro of the events on the ground, “stressing the importance of ensuring that a strong message was sent regarding the urgency of determining and securing the will of the people of Guyana.”
“The OAS General Secretariat therefore welcomes the initiative of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to deploy a high-level mission to supervise a re-count of the ballots in Region 4, as well as the other regions of Guyana. The OAS permanent representative in Guyana, Jean Ricot Dormeus, will remain engaged with the re-count and with the overall electoral process and to report to the General Secretariat,” the statement said.