“Don’t let Guyana descend into pit of lawlessness” – Sir Shridath Ramphal

…reminds political leaders of border case to fight at ICJ

Renowned Guyanese born diplomat Sir Shridath Ramphal has urged Guyana’s political leaders not to allow the country to descend into a “pit of lawlessness” and to ensure that good sense prevails as the national elections recount of the March 2 General and Regional elections draws to a close.

Sir Shridath on Saturday made it clear that Guyana must strive to remain lawful and maintain its respect on the global stage. He noted that this would all be placed in jeopardy if the law and democracy are trampled on.
“As Guyana nears the tipping point of its ‘elections crisis’ I plead with all my fellow Guyanese not to allow our motherland to descend into the darkness of denial of the rule of law and regularity,” he said. He said that as Guyanese, “we owe it to ourselves, to the Caribbean Community which we have helped to bring to life, and to the wider global community whose respect we have earned as an enlightened democratic State – not to debase ourselves by descent into the pit of lawlessness.”

Border controversy case
Sir Shridath reminded that in just a few weeks, Guyana will be depending on the international community and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to seek binding legal protection against Venezuela, which has unjustly laid claim to a large chunk of Guyana’s territory.
“In a matter of weeks, we shall be appearing before the International Court of Justice at the worthy instance of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to appeal for global justice under international law against menace to our national patrimony,” the diplomat also said.
“Almost three-quarters of Guyana – of land and sea – is under threat. We must protect it with clean and united hands. Let lawfulness prevail in our country; unless it does, all of Guyana – and all its people – are imperilled!”
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) announced that for Saturday, 93 ballot boxes were counted. This means that of the 2339 total ballot boxes, only 74 remain to be counted. Considering GECOM’s average daily count, this should be easily completed today.
However, GECOM has also announced that it will delay including the Statements of Recount (SoR) from 29 ballot boxes into the tabulation, because of documents that were discovered to be missing when the boxes were opened.
These documents include the marked Official List of Electors, poll books and counterfoil. GECOM also revealed that they have taken steps to resolve the issue, by inviting some of the Deputy Returning Officers (DROs) who were responsible for those Polling Stations, to a meeting with Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield on Saturday.
According to GECOM, however, none of the DROs showed up. GECOM said that it will also be making an effort to contact the Presiding Officers (POs) from those areas, while a meeting will be convened by the Commission to decide on the way forward.

3 months and counting
It has been over three months since Guyanese went to the polls and voted on March 2, yet the elections have not come to a credible conclusion. Two declarations made by former Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, which were widely criticised as lacking credibility, resulted in a Caribbean Community (Caricom) overseen recount being conducted.
Since the recount started, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has put the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) on blast because the numbers being uncovered were vastly different to those declared by Mingo. In fact, the PPP has contended that Mingo not only fraudulently inflated the number of votes in favour of APNU/AFC, but that he also deducted votes from the PPP.
A unified international community has already warned Guyana that it could be isolated and even sanctioned if a President is sworn in on the flawed results, resulting in an uneasy standoff between the international community and the Government.
With the recount coming to a conclusion, the international community has also been calling on stakeholders to “peacefully accept the wishes of the Guyanese population”. This was communicated in a statement as recent as Friday from the diplomatic representatives for the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and the European Union (EU).