Granger regime to US Govt: No Carter Center for elections recount

…also rejects Senators’ call for more “credible int’l observers” in recount
…Canada questions motive for rejection

Less than one week after Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF), Joseph Harmon, said the Carter Center can reapply for permission to return to Guyana to monitor the ongoing National Recount, the David Granger Administration has again denied the organisation’s request.

Earlier this month, the Carter Center had revealed that they were hoping to return to Guyana to conclude their observation of the 2020 elections by monitoring the recount exercise, but they did not get the necessary permission from the Guyana Government to come on a scheduled flight to Guyana, which was chartered to repatriate US citizens stranded here.

last Saturday, Harmon denied his Government had blocked the team from returning, and indicated that the Carter Center can reapply for permission to return to Guyana, provided that each member of the team get tested in their home country, and each have a certificate that shows their clean bill of health.

As such, only on Wednesday, US Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah-Ann Lynch, disclosed that both her office and the Carter Center from the US had made a second request for the Guyana Government to allow the organisation’s electoral observation mission (EOM) as well as advisors from the International Republican Institute (IRI)

to return to Georgetown to monitor the ongoing exercise of the recount of ballots cast in the March 2 elections.

Request denied
However, in response to the request, caretaker Foreign Affairs Minister Karen Cummings, in a letter dated Friday May 15, 2020, informed the US Ambassador that “…it may not be possible for the Carter Center and the IRI Advisor to participate in the overseeing of the recount of the votes cast in 2nd March 2020 General and Regional Elections, which as you are aware has already commenced.”
Cummings cited the series of emergency measures, including the imposition of a curfew and the closure of Guyana’s international airports, as reasons for the denial of the request.
The caretaker Foreign Affairs Minister further reminded that the Caribbean Community (Caricom) high-level team remains the “most legitimate interlocutors” in the current political situation; and that Guyana, equally, is confident in the legitimacy, credibility, and competence of the regional team to perform its task of scrutinising the elections.

Decision denounced
Meanwhile, for refusing the Carter Center’s request, Government has come under criticism, including from the Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana, Lilian Chatterjee.
She said in a tweet on Friday night that, despite ties since the 1990s, Guyana has refused the Carter Center’s return, although they will comply with same COVID-19 requirements as the Caricom team.
“GECOM [Guyana Elections Commission] invited @CarterGuyanaEOM to return. Why doesn’t Govt want them back?” she questioned.
Additionally, the New York-based International Center for Democracy (ICD), in a statement on Friday, denounced the caretaker administration’s refusal.
“The denial only raises more skepticism and lack of trust among domestic and international constituencies in the integrity of the recount, and lays the groundwork for a future political crisis in Guyana”, it said.
Even with the Caricom team here, the Democracy Center said, there are still few observers on the ground to monitor the recount, and they called on the Government to change its position and allow more observers into the country “to restore faith among the public and international community in the integrity of this momentous and consequential process.”
However, even as the Granger-led administration insists that the country’s international airports would remain closed to protect Guyanese, the caretaker administration has approved some six to eight flights for oil giant ExxonMobil to fly in its workers from around the world.
This forced Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday to call on the coalition to stop playing politics and allow the international observers to return. He pointed out that, in addition to the foreign observers, there are many Guyanese who are stranded overseas as well.
“All the oil companies have flights coming in here. People from all around the world can come in, and we have Guyanese stranded in many parts of the world who want to come home… They are stranded everywhere. [Government can] use the same COVID protocols, and they must comply with them, that the workers for the oil companies are using. But it seems as though they have preferences over Guyanese and over the international observers too, when [the recount] is the most important exercise that we’re engaged in now,” Jagdeo asserted.
According to the Opposition Leader, the recent letter written by five top-ranking senators from both the Republican and Democratic parties in the US to President Granger, requesting that the Carter Center be allowed to return, as well as similar calls from senior representatives in the US Government, shows that there is very high-level interest in the ongoing recount of the March 2 votes.

Senators’ call rejected
In the letter to the US Senators, Granger said his administration has been authorising flights to land for special situations, including the repatriation of foreign citizens in Guyana, including US citizens; as well as for the arrival of workers in the oil sector.
But in a separate response to the Senators’ letter, Minister Cummings, on behalf of the President, on Friday reiterated that US officials should respect her government’s decision to have the Caricom team be the “legitimate interlocutors” in the recount exercise, and that they respect the emergency measures in place.
Meanwhile, in addition to the senators, a bipartisan group of members of the US Congress made similar calls earlier this week. In fact, there has been mounting pressure on the coalition administration to approve the return of the international observers.