EU urges quick conclusion of electoral process with recount results

The Caribbean Community (Caricom) team’s report on Guyana’s elections, which found that voting was free and fair, on Wednesday received support from the European Union Election Observer Mission (EU-EOM).
In a statement, the EU-EOM welcomed the submission of the CARICOM Observer team’s report and noted that it reflected their own findings. Those findings included that voting was well managed and that the electoral process was compromised in Region 4 by senior Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) officials.
“The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU-EOM) to Guyana welcomes the Caricom observer team’s report of 13 June. The report reflects the findings of the EU-EOM, which in its final report concluded that voting and counting were well managed all over the country, as was the tabulation of results in nine of Guyana’s ten regions.”

The EU-EOM again highlighted that the integrity of the entire electoral process was seriously compromised by the tabulation of results in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) by senior GECOM officials.
Meanwhile, the EU also expressed hope that GECOM would conclude the electoral process in a timely manner. GECOM Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield has been given until 13:00h today to submit a final report, enabling GECOM Chair, retired Justice Claudette Singh, to declare the winner of the General and Regional Elections.
“The EU-EOM trusts GECOM to expeditiously conclude the electoral process in accordance with the data resulting from the recount, as per gazetted Order No. 60 of 2020 and its addendum,” the EU-EOM said.

The high-level Caricom Electoral Observer Team, deemed by President David Granger himself as “the most legitimate interlocutors” in Guyana’s elections standoff, had concluded that the results emanating from the National Recount of the March 02 polls are credible, acceptable, and should be the basis from which GECOM declares the final results.
The Caricom Report was handed over to GECOM on Monday.
The Caricom team comprised Sylvester King, Deputy Supervisor of Elections of St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Cynthia Barrow-Giles, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies (UWI); and John Jarvis, Commissioner of the Antigua and Barbuda Electoral Commission.
Barrow-Giles, who had led the team, in her report to the Caricom Secretary-General, wrote as follows: “Overall, while we acknowledge that there were some defects in the recount of the March 02, 2020 votes cast for the General and Regional Elections in Guyana, the team did not witness anything which would render the recount, and by extension the casting of the ballot on March 02, so grievously deficient procedurally or technically, (despite some irregularities), or sufficiently deficient to have thwarted the will of the people and consequently preventing the election results and its declaration by GECOM from reflecting the will of the voters. The actual count of the vote was indeed transparent.”
This report now further places CEO Lowenfield in the proverbial pickle, since he has been accused of parroting the incumbent A Partnership For National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) narrative of dead and migrated people voting. In his report, submitted on Saturday to GECOM Chair, Retired Justice Claudette Singh, the CEO when outside his legal ambit and provided an opinion on the observation reports. He even opined that the March 2 polls were not credible, and illegally revised the tabulation figures to show the APNU/AFC winning the General and Regional Elections with a 2/3 Parliamentary majority.
However, the seasoned Caricom Team concluded that despite some administrative failings and the disastrous tabulation by District Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, the March 2 polls were credible, and attempts to say otherwise were outrightly rejected.
Though having some concerns, the team noted that it had witnessed no situation wherein the acceptability of results could be challenged.