“Let’s get this over with!” – British High Commissioner on recount

– reminds that Guyana needs credible Govt to tackle COVID-19, other issues
– expresses support for Carter Center to observe recount

With the recount scheduled for today, His Excellency, British High Commissioner to Guyana, Greg Quinn has urged that it be concluded quickly and incident-free, so the elected Government can focus on tackling COVID-19 and the other challenges Guyana currently faces.

High Commissioner Quinn made this pronouncement during an appearance on a local radio programme on Tuesday. He pointed out that with the current challenges facing the country, Guyana needs to be able to focus on facing them.
This includes mitigating the economic and social fallout of the coronavirus, which as of Monday has claimed nine lives and infected almost 100 in Guyana.
“I think everybody is actually wanting to get to the stage where we can actually get a result and move on. One of the reasons why we need to get a credible result and move on is because we’re in a situation where we have COVID, we have economic and social impacts and we have health impacts.”

“That really should be where the focus of all our attention should be. So what happened, happened. We made clear what we thought about what happened. Here we are now, we need a credible result, we need a Government in place so we can then address these very concerning issues of a global pandemic.”
Quinn called the pandemic one of the greatest threats the world has ever seen and certainly the greatest one in generations. Asked how confident he was that GECOM can carry out the recount without hitch, Quinn was optimistic.
“We have to have faith in the process being completed. It’s the only option. So we have to give all our support to that process going forward,” Quinn said.
The British diplomat also voiced support for the United States (US)-based Carter Center observation mission to be able to return and observe the recount.
The Center has said that its requests to come to Guyana have gone unheeded by the local authorities, prompting the international community and civil society to put pressure on the Government. According to Quinn, their presence can only help the process.
“Whenever people say to me, why is it important for the Carter Center to be there, it’s partly because you have 10 work station, provision for one local observer at each station and one international observer.”
“So in my view, the more international observers you can bring in to [do] what GECOM itself has proposed, the better. That’s why I would certainly support the Carter Center and IRI [International Republican Institute] coming in. And ideally, some others, if they could make it.”

Recount
It has been over two months since Guyana’s elections, but a credible winner is yet to be declared after two widely discredited declarations from Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo.
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is set to embark today on a 25-day recount at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC). But the inability of the Carter Center to observe the recount has left an air of foreboding over the process.
An observer from the Carter Center was unable to travel to Guyana on Monday as planned owing to the denial of approval to travel to Guyana from the COVID-19 Task Force.
In a statement on Monday, the democracy watchdog reaffirmed its commitment to providing an independent observation of Guyana’s electoral process; however, it stated: “The Center deployed an observer to Miami, who was prepared to travel to Georgetown today [Monday], but, unfortunately, his flight was denied approval to carry international election observers.”
According to the Center, attempts continue to be made to ascertain from Government officials what is required to allow the Center’s staff to return to Guyana to observe the recount process
The United States Embassy in Georgetown had revealed that permission was sought from the National COVID-19 Task Force – which is chaired by caretaker Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo with Director Joseph Harmon functioning as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), for a flight to land on Monday, May 4, and for the observers from the Carter Center to be allowed entry into Guyana on that flight.
In response, the Task Force only approved the arrival of the flight and not the observers. In light of this situation, Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission, Retired Justice Claudette Singh has indicated that she would address the National Task Force on this issue.