Georgetown: The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) plans to recall the high-level team from CARICOM to ‘validate’ and give credibility to the recount of all votes cast on March 2, 2020, in the general and regional elections while the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield is expected to present a draft plan on Wednesday to embark on the recount.
Government commissioner Vincent Alexander on Monday said “we have decided today that our preference in terms of an external body to give some validation, that it’s CARICOM….In terms of validation, the only body that at this time we’ll be referencing is CARICOM for validation purposes… The others were never for validation. The others were observers. CARICOM came into the process with a particular role; that role is a modified form that we are retaining. The others were never under consideration for validation purposes. They are observers.”
At the invitation of President David Granger, a team of Caribbean Prime Ministers, including Dr Rowley, led by CARICOM Chairman and Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley visited Guyana last month to broker an agreement between President Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo for a CARICOM team to supervise that recount.
That agreement resulted in the signing of an aide-memoire which details CARICOM’s role.
The recount team comprising of 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 at the University of the West Indies were selected and travelled to Guyana.
However, the team left of March 17 after an injunction was filed to block the recount. That injunction has since been thrown out by the full court.
Mottley had said the team is open to returning to Guyana. Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister, Keith Rowley on Monday told a news conference in Port-of-Spain that his government would be willing to recommend to CARICOM that the high-level team return to Georgetown to scrutinise the recount process.
The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) had previously raised concerns about the use of Clairmont Mingo, the Returning officer for Region Four since his tabulation of votes was deemed fraudulent by international observers and other parties.
PPP nominated Elections Commissioner, Sase Gunraj gave a slightly different account, saying the commission decided to ask observers to indicate whether they would like to come to observe the process.
On the issue of CARICOM, he expected that Secretary-General, Irwin LaRocque would be asked to reengage the team.
“I believe that we need to have some form of finality on our end as to when we’ll begin to pass that information on to them ,” Gunraj added.
Alexander and Gunraj confirmed that Lowenfield has been tasked with crafting a plan for the recount now that several questions and clarifications were addressed at Monday’s meeting.
Alexander said CARICOM would be informed “soonest” that the team would be required back in Georgetown.
Gunraj said the commission provided guidance to the Chief Elections Officer on a range of operational issues that he could provide a plan to the Commission on Wednesday.
Issues that Lowenfield has to address include the conduct of the recount, the role of the commission in resolving disputes, reporting mechanism, and recording results from the recount. “We went through every one of the concerns of the CEO and attempted as best as we could to provide as much clarity to him,” Gunraj said.
He said no final decision has been taken on any of the several proposals for a recount whether concerning votes only or votes and other material.
No date has yet been agreed on for the start of the recount while the Arthur Chung Conference Centre is expected to be retained for the recount.
You must be logged in to post a comment.