Parties that claim victory should not fear recount – Caricom Ambassador to OAS

…says irregularities occurred during counting not voting

Chair of the Group of Caricom Ambassadors to the Organisation of American States (OAS), Noel Lynch on Wednesday said that political parties in Guyana that are claiming victory in the March 2 polls should not fear the ongoing recount process.

Both the Opposition – the People’s Progressive Party/Civic – and the caretaker A Partnership for national Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government have said that they won the March 2 elections, which were held more than two months ago, but credible results were yet to be declared. The Opposition, however, was the only party to released its Statements of Poll to the public for scrutiny.
Currently, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has undertaken a national recount of all the votes cast on March 2 and the exercise is being scrutinised by a special high-level Caribbean Community (Caricom) team. However, the APNU/AFC has made allegations of irregularities on polling day (March 2) including that dead people voted as well as those who have migrated. Not only did the coalition failed to provide evidence to support these allegations of irregularities, but these were being made just over a week after caretaker President David Granger said in a statement that the elections were “free, fair and orderly”.
The PPP/C has since argued that these were attempts by the incumbent coalition to “derail” and “undermine” the recount process.
But according to Ambassador Lynch, “if each of the political parties genuinely believe it has won, then they should have no fear of the current recount, and they should all support it.”
Lynch, who is also Barbados’ Ambassador to the OAS, was at the time speaking at the virtual OAS Meeting of the Permanent Council on Wednesday morning, where Head of the OAS Elections Observation Mission (EOM), former Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding, presented a preliminary report on Guyana’s elections.
The Caricom Ambassador pointed out explicitly that the only irregularities that have been unearthed in Guyana’s electoral process were during the counting process and not polling day as was being claimed by the incumbent Administration.
“We are mindful, Mr Chairman, that irregularities occurred not in the system by which the Guyanese electorate cast their votes on March 2nd, but in the presentation of the count afterwards,” he posited.
Ambassador Lynch went on to recognise that the role that the international observers such as the OAS, the Commonwealth, European Union and Caricom teams played as controversy arose over the counting and tabulation of the votes in the days following polling day.
“Had these Observer Missions not persevered in Guyana, a result might have been declared that would not have commanded the acceptance of the Guyanese people or the respect and approval of the international community,” he posited.
The Barbadian diplomat noted that a national recount was finally in progress and the exercise is being scrutinised by the high-level Caricom team. As the recount enters into Day Nine today, he said it was clear that the process would go beyond its 25-day timeframe.
This was as a result of two factors: the intense scrutiny to which each ballot is being subjected for the satisfaction of all the contending political parties and each observer mission; and the physical distancing rules that have had to be applied because of COVID-19, which limit the number of persons to participate in and observe the recount.

Democracy must be the winner

Lauding the Guyanese people for their patience and commitment to maintaining democracy, Ambassador Lynch posited that this was not just important to Guyana as a nation but also to Caricom as a regional body.
It is for this reason, he noted, that Caricom regards itself as the most “legitimate interlocutors” in the current situation in Guyana.
“We have no interest in which political party wins the election… Caricom’s interest is that, at the end of the recounting process, democracy must be the winner… If democracy fails in any Caricom country, it fails in the larger Community. If it is imperilled in any part of our Community, it is imperilled everywhere in it,” he contended.
According to Ambassador Lynch, as an institution, Caricom cannot allow this to happen in any of its Member States.
“The Guyanese people deserve a credible and transparent process to put into office a legitimate government that they elected. Caricom takes its scrutineering role in this recount extremely seriously. We intend to see it through to a transparent and credible conclusion,” the Barbadian diplomat stated.
Meanwhile, several of Guyana’s bilateral partners, including Canada and the United States, as well as neighbouring Brazil have also commented on the issue.
Brazilian Ambassador to the OAS, Fernando Simas Magalhães said his country was closely watching developments here, noting that the recount was key for establishing political normalcy in Guyana and for there to be results that could be accepted by all the candidates and society at large.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Ambassador to the OAS, Hugh Adsett reiterated his country’s position that the results of Guyana’s elections were “long overdue” and that transparency of the process would be vital to ensure the legitimacy of the Government that would be sworn-in.
Additionally, Deputy US Permanent Representative to the OAS, Alexis Ludwig, described the report as “compelling and somewhat disturbing”.
Ambassador Ludwig also expressed concerns that representatives from the Carter Center and the International Republic Institute (IRI) were disallowed from returning to Guyana to observe the recount.