Georgetown: The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) high-level team on Tuesday withdrew their services to supervise a national recount of ballots cast on March 02 are due to depart Guyana soon after a APNU government candidate in the elections sought an injunction blocking the recount.
The Independent High-Level team were: Ms Angela Taylor, Chief Electoral Officer, Barbados; Mr Anthony Boatswain, former Finance Minister, Grenada; Ms Francine Baron, Chair of the Team and former Attorney General and Foreign Minister, Dominica; Ms Fern Nacis-Scope, Chief Elections Officer, Trinidad and Tobago; Ms Cynthia Barrow-Giles, Senior Lecturer, Department of Government, UWI.
“Should there be a swearing-in on the basis of fraudulent election results, the People’s Progressive Party will treat Mr. Granger’s regime as illegal and illegitimate and will pursue the consequences addressed by Secretary Pompeo to the end, as well as sanctions for the members of the APNU+AFC Coalition, their families, their cronies, and their collaborators,” the opposition PPP said.
The PPP made known its position to CARICOM Secretary-General, Irwin La Rocque who led a five-member high-level team to a meeting with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
The PPP also noted that the United States (US) Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo remarked about Guyana’s political situation connected to the March 2, 2020 general elections , that “it is important to note that the individuals who seek to benefit from electoral fraud and to form illegitimate governments, regimes, will be subject to a variety of serious consequences from the United States.”
Pompeo said the US was closely monitoring the tabulation of votes in Guyana. He said the US joined the Organisation of American States, Commonwealth, European Union, CARICOM and “other democratic partners in calling for an accurate count.” The US Secretary of State commended CARICOM’s role in “seeking a swift democratic resolution.”
Western Nations and along with international observers have warned about sanctions because the tabulation process for Region 4 was not done in a credible and transparent manner, and so raised suspicions about the fairness of the general and regional elections.
Hours before the count was to commence by the CARICOM team High Court Judge Franklyn Holder granted a mandatory order to restrain the Chief Elections Officer from embarking upon the recount agreement between President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo.
“An interim injunction is hereby granted restraining the Guyana Elections Commission from permitting or authorising any person or persons to any agreement between the President of Guyana and the Leader of the Opposition and or any agreement between the Guyana Elections Commission and the Caribbean Community or at all to count or recount any ballots cast by the electors at the March 2, 2020 general and regional elections until the hearing and review of the judicial application review filed herein,” the court document stated.
Orders were also granted restraining the Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield from setting aside or varying the declaration of the ten Returning Officers of the ten administrative districts and from substituting or replacing those declarations with any other documents or declarations until the judicial review is heard.
Unless the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) gets the High Court to discharge the order, the Chief Elections Officer will declare all the results and issue a report to GECOM for certification. That process will pave the way for the swearing in of David Granger for a second term.
The Chief Justice, Roxane George-Wiltshire had previously blocked the Chief Elections Officer and GECOM from declaring the results unless they were properly tabulated.
Attorney-at-Law, Sanjeev Datadin said the PPP would file papers to get the High Court to discharge those orders before Friday’s hearing.
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