Harmon “is a mere utensil” and should know his place – Owen Arthur says in defense of Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves

Georgetown: Owen Arthur, the former Prime Minister of Barbados has said the statement by incoming chairman of CARICOM, Ralph Gonsalves that the bloc will not stand by and watch an election being stolen is perfectly.

Former Prime Minister of Barbados Owen Arthur

APNU+AFC Campaign Manager Joe Harmon in response to Prime Minister Gonsalves said “it is to be expected that CARICOM leaders would refrain from any actions or utterances that could undermine the legitimacy of the process and its credible conclusion”.

On Wednesday’s Edition of “Your Morning Cup with Colvin Harry”, aired on State-owned NBC Radio in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Prime Minister Dr. Gonsalves stated: “We expect the CARICOM observer mission to deliver its report, and we expect that what is the recount would be honoured, and the Guyana Elections Commission will honour that recount and declare the winner in accordance with this recount. And anybody who then wants to challenge anything afterwards can go to court, but you have to declare the winner in accordance with the recount… I know a lot of opposition parties when they lose, or anybody who loses they say, ‘Oh, so and so thief.’ It’s almost a boring repetition; we get the reports, follow the law and who wins, wins.”

Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves

The Organisation of American States (OAS) – one of the International Elections Observer Missions (EOM) – has also urged CARICOM to use the data numbers from its recount to declare a winner since the process satisfied international standards for transparency and credibility.

Arthur, speaking with a private media outlet via telephone, said Harmon “is a mere utensil” and “cannot be allowed to indulge his appetite to be attacking leaders.”

Further, he said President David Granger should let Harmon know his place if they hope to have goodwill with the people of the Caribbean.

But Arthur said Caribbean countries, including Guyana, have signed a Charter for Civil Society which when joined gives responsibility in ensuring free and fair elections and it is in that context that Mr Gonsalves had spoken.

Further Arthur said “I must say Joe Harmon and his party attack on people is putting his party and leaders in a position where I believe it would be very difficult for them to be able to engage in fellowship of goodwill with other people in the Caribbean.”

Last month the APNU+AFC had issued strong statements of condemnation against Head of the OAS Observer Mission, former Prime Minister of Jamaica, Bruce Golding who highlighted in an OAS report that “transparent” efforts were made to manipulate the elections results in favour of the APNU+AFC.

Following the final tabulation of votes of the National Recount on June 8, which placed the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) in the lead, there have been several outcries by the Coalition, insisting that the final recount was invalid and that it cannot be used to declare the winner. Due to this, the Coalition has also refused to sign the District Certificates, all except for Region One.

Joseph Harmon

The Coalition has accumulated thousands of allegations of electoral fraud, levelled against the PPP/C. It has asserted that these allegations point to an undermining of the electoral process, and a non-credible election. However, the Coalition’s claims have largely been unsubstantiated, and many were proven to be false.

Gonsalves, mentioned that he is a friend of the President, David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo and that he, in his honest opinion, thinks that the recount process was carried out effectively and should definitely be used to declare the long anticipated winner.

The recount has shown that the Coalition lost the Election with a General Election total of 217,920 votes, behind the PPP/C’s total of 233,336 votes.