Georgetown: US Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah-Ann Lynch during a local radio programme said there is no doubt that if a President is sworn in on the basis of electoral fraud that the United States will be forced to utilize sanctions that range from visa restriction to financial measures that could impact the Guyana’s economy.
“You’ve seen some of the statements coming out of Washington. Secretary (of State Mike) Pompeo. Assistant Secretary (Michael) Kozak. The National Security Council. They have been very strong. And Secretary Pompeo did point to serious consequences if the democratic process, the rule of law, and the principles of democracy are not followed in Guyana,” she explained “So, sanctions are a set of tools in the toolkit that potentially can be explored. Decisions on sanctions – first of all, they range from issues of visa restrictions to issues of financial measures. So, it’s a range of things that can be discussed and looked into. And those decisions are made at the highest levels of the Government in Washington, with the inter-agency fully concurring.”
Further, the US envoy noted that it is still too early to say whether sanctions are likely to be applied as she is very optimistic that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will be doing its job and facilitating the recount to general satisfaction of all Guyanese.
“We are hopeful though, that we don’t have to go down that road. Even if they’re at the ready, those tools, we don’t want to go down that road. And we’re in this recount process right now. My observation is that it’s going well. GECOM is answering any issues that pop up, they’re doing their best to answer and address them. They’re looking into the issue of extending the (workstations). So, I think it’s too early to say whether there would be any sanctions,” she said.
Asked if there would be a timeline the US was looking at before drawing a line, she emphasised that the effort is a Guyanese-led one and the US did not have a specific timeline in mind.
Ambassador Lynch was one of four foreign envoys who walked out of the Ashmin’s building where the Region Four tabulation were being done in March.
They later, in a joint statement, warned that Guyana faced the risk of standing isolated if they used tabulations of the results that are not credible.
Lynch said that they would speak up when they see things that may not be going as they should.
“We will continue to do that…not stand idly by.”
The ambassador also pointed out that there were instances of independent and joint statements issued by the US, Britain, Canada and European Union. Some issued after March 2 pointed out what a “terrific” day it was in terms of the casting of ballots.
Throughout it all, there were consistencies in the statements being issued, she said.
According to Lynch, there were other similar statements coming from the CARICOM, the Commonwealth, the Organisation of American States, the European Union and the Carter Center which all between them included over 130 countries.
These are in addition to bilateral ones from France, Norway and India. “I think we are in good company…in that we are all very consistent.”
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