Carter Center must re-apply to return to Guyana – Harmon

…will have to satisfy COVID-19 requirements upon arrival

Chief Executive Officer of the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF), Joseph Harmon denied not approving a request by The Carter Center’s Election Observation Mission to return to Guyana for the national recount and said that the United States-based organisation can still re-apply to come.

Since the closure of Guyana’s borders, the US Embassy here has secured special permission from the COVID-19 Task Force for relief flights to repatriate its citizens.
As such, The Carter Center along with representatives from the International Republican Institute (IRI), which had provided technical support to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) during the elections, were hoping to secure permission from the Guyana Government to return to Georgetown on an Eastern Airlines relief flight that was scheduled for Monday last.
However, this permission was not granted and the flight arrived at the CJIA empty.
The Carter Center in a statement said it “…deployed an observer to Miami who was prepared to travel to Georgetown [Monday], but unfortunately, his flight was denied approval to carry international election observers.”
Nevertheless, the Center said it will continue to reach out to Guyanese Government officials to understand what is required to allow its observers to return to Guyana to witness the recount process.
According to Harmon, this could be facilitated.
“I think they can apply to come. They [will have to] go through the right processes and so on… They have to satisfy the COVID requirements,” he told reporters on Saturday outside the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, where the national recount is ongoing after starting on Wednesday.
This, the Task Force CEO said, entails being tested in their home country and having a certificate that is validated for at least seven days. Otherwise, he noted, they will have to face a 14-day mandatory quarantine upon arrival if they are without this medical certificate.
Asked whether this was indicated to the observation mission, Harmon asserted that it was a “public notice” known to the world. In fact, he pointed to the NCTF’s position to not allow any incoming flight, including of Guyanese who are stranded abroad amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
“COVID-19 are not things we should take lightly. We have to ensure that when people come here, they are properly tested and things like that,” he maintained.
Only Friday caretaker Minister of Public Security and A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) Prime Ministerial Candidate, Khemraj Ramjattan disclosed that it was not the Task Force that denied the Center’s request to return but President David Granger.
Ramjattan, who is on the NCTF, told reporters “I am part of the National COVID-19 Task Force…As far as I am aware, there was a request, not to the Task Force, but to the President from The Carter Center.”
Nevertheless, Harmon claimed on Saturday that the caretaker APNU/AFC coalition has nothing to hide. In fact, the NCTF CEO explained that when the application was made, it was for a humanitarian flight to come to pick up US citizens in Guyana but at the last minute, they were advised that a Carter Center team will be on the aircraft.
“We didn’t say take them off or that they shouldn’t come. What we learnt is that when the aircraft arrived here, they were not there. They were not on the flight… Let me make this pellucid that we have absolutely nothing against The Carter Center… We are open to scrutiny… What we are saying is that there is a process which had to be followed and that is what we insisted on,” he posited.
Harmon pointed to the presence of the high-level Caricom team that is currently in Guyana scrutinising the recount of the March 2 votes.
The Carter Center is among five foreign organisations that were accredited to observe the March elections. However, all the observation missions left Guyana following the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak but were still monitoring the situation here.
There has since been mounting calls including from the United States and Canadian Governments as well as the United Nations for The Carter Center to be allowed to return to Guyana for the national recount.
These calls were made by the acting Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the Department of State, Michael Kozak; Assistant Deputy Minister for the Americas at Global Affairs Canada, Michael Grant, and United Nations Resident Coordinator in Guyana, Mikiko Tanaka.
Additionally, while the European Union and the Organisation of American States (OAS) have used representatives on the ground for the recount, they too have joined calls for the return of The Carter Center.