Guyana risks ouster from Caricom & C/wealth if recount results not respected – Owen Arthur

…says if there are issues then seek relief of the court

The coalition administration runs the risk of isolating Guyana as a ‘rogue pariah’ state, likely to be suspended from not only the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) but the Commonwealth bloc of nations should it go ahead and try to hold on to executive power in face of contrasting, incontrovertible results from the recount of ballots cast at the March 2, General and Regional Elections.

This is the stark conclusion by former Prime Minister of Barbados, Owen Arthur, who more recently served as the head of the Commonwealth Elections Observer Mission to Guyana. He made this disclosure in a radio broadcasted interview on Kaieteur Radio on Friday with social commentator Dr Yog Mahadeo.
Arthur spoke to the postulations of several speakers on behalf of the ruling A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) coalition who are relegating the results of the recount exercise.
Arthur has since suggested: “If government does not want to accept the result, but also want to stay in office, then CARICOM will have to make a decision on whether Guyana will have to be suspended or not.”

Responding specifically to the vitriolic attacks by APNU+AFC General Secretary Joseph Harmon on incoming CARICOM Chairman, St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, the Bajan official reminded that Guyana, as a member of CARICOM, is signatory to a number of binding treaties.
These, he reminded, include the CARICOM Charter of Civil Society, which demands adherence to good governance on the part of member states.
As such, Arthur posits that in order for Guyana to reap the benefits of good governance as practised not only in the country but throughout CARICOM, it must avoid being portrayed as a rogue state, which in itself brings consequences.
He also noted that Guyana is a member of the Commonwealth, which also holds treaties that demand inconvertible results from the election recount be respected and used; and he added, “If there are issues, then you have to seek the relief of the court.”

The former Barbadian Prime Minister was, moreover, quick to remind that Guyana was one of the principal beneficiaries of the treaties that bind CARICOM, and he pointed to the ease of travel and trade between countries.
Defending the incoming CARICOM Chair’s pronouncements on Guyana’s still-to-be-concluded electoral process, Arthur reminded that the country also benefits from the community in its border brouhaha with neighbouring Venezuela.
Emphasising that CARICOM is more than a regional economy and more of a regional society, he said Guyanese benefited when “every CARICOM head issued a statement to proclaim strong support for Guyana” and its territorial integrity “in face of a claim by Venezuela to two-thirds of your land.”
He told Dr Mahadeo that the incoming CARICOM Chairman was “perfectly in order” to make his public pronouncements, since “there are instruments of governance on which our relations in CARICOM are based.”
Dr Gonsalves had, a day earlier, said the regional bloc of nations “will not stand by idly and watch the recount (of ballots cast in the Guyana March 2 General and Regional Elections) which is properly done, for the results to be set aside.”
According to Dr Gonsalves, “CARICOM is not going to tolerate anybody stealing any election.”

The incoming CARICOM Chair had posited that, very many times, “a lot of Opposition parties, when they lose, or anybody who loses, say so-and-so thief.”
Addressing the domestic political state of affairs, former Barbadian Prime Minister Owen Arthur, during his interview with Dr Mahadeo, suggested, “I don’t think Guyana should feel it could easily withstand the ire of the entire global community.”
He pointed out that sanctions would come from not only Regional countries, but from the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada and many others. According to Arthur, “Those are the implications of not having a free and fair elections.”
Addressing the political grandstanding by supporters of the APNU+AFC in face of the incontrovertible results of the ballots cast during the March 2 exercise, Arthur noted that leaders of tremendous standing from across the Caribbean have had to concede electoral defeat at various times.
He cited as example Norman Manley of Jamaica, and posited that he did not think Guyana’s David Granger would want to depart from the political tradition of accepting victory with gratitude and grace and accepting the will of the people in an elections defeat.
He quipped, nonetheless, “…there is no graceful way to lose in public.”