Caretaker Minister meets with ABCE diplomats to discuss recount

Caretaker Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr Karen Cummings on Thursday met with the American, British, Canadian and European Union Ambassadors to discuss the ongoing recount of the ballots cast in the March 2 General and Regional Elections.
According to a statement from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, American Ambassador Sarah-Ann Lynch, British High Commissioner Greg Quinn, Canadian High Commissioner Lilian Chatterjee, and European Union Ambassador Fernando Ponz Cantó all agreed on the importance of the ongoing national recount. The release stated that Dr Cummings conveyed that the “Government valued their participation, which as international observers could provide an effective means to verify the genuineness and transparency of the electoral process.”

Additionally, Dr Cummings was quoted as saying, “Undoubtedly, we are all pleased that this process is now on its way and will expeditiously and in a transparent manner produce credible and final results of our elections”.
It was the same caretaker Minister Cummings, who held a highly improper meeting with international observers at the Command Centre of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) at High and Hadfield Streets, Georgetown, where she threatened to revoke their accreditation.
On March 5, Dr Cummings told the international observers that she was instructed to withdraw their accreditation, but she was not in agreement that it should be done; she did not reveal who gave her those instructions and why. This act of possible intimidation came after chaos erupted at the Command Centre following the blatant attempt to manipulate the results for Electoral District Four (Demerara-Mahaica) by Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo.
However, her comments were quickly countered by observers in the room, who argued that her remarks were considered a form of intimidation.
“It comes across as intimidation that you are trying to intimidate the observers when you speak about taking away accreditation,” one of the observers is heard saying.
Head of the Commonwealth Observer Mission in Guyana, former Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur intervened and confronted the caretaker Minister informing her that she disrespected the Commonwealth. He volunteered to return his accreditation and pointedly told her that he would report the matter to the Commonwealth Secretary General.
At this point, Cummings did not even attempt to be diplomatic when she just took a phone call while the observers were speaking and left the room. The caretaker Minister and the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) came in for heavy criticism for her action.