Recount of votes important step to “legitimacy” of electoral process – OAS

…offers support for process

Attention from foreign states and the international community has been undividedly placed on Guyana throughout the past month, as a series of electoral mishaps followed after the March 2 Regional and General polls.

Shortly after the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) made a decision to have a nationwide recount of the votes, the Organisation of American States was one of the first entities to welcome the move.
Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro said on his Twitter page on Friday that this decision is an important step to ensure legitimacy in the elections process as the body offered its support once again.
“OAS General Secretariat supports GECOM decision to carry out an integral recount in Guyana. It is an important step to grant legitimacy [in the] Guyana elections and we hope the process encounters no obstacles,” the high-level official posted.
He also commented on the work of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) in supporting the country during this serious affair.
The OAS Elections Observer Mission to Guyana, headed by former Jamaican Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, withdrew from the process on March 13. This move came on the heels of never-ending drama as it relates to the tabulating of Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) votes.
During that time, the organisation stated that the process used by District Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo lacked transparency.
“The process being conducted by the Returning Officer for Region Four to ascertain the results of the National and Regional Elections held on March 2 does not meet the required standard of fairness and transparency.”
While the execution of the elections was commended, the statement had said that the tabulation would not bear credible results.
“The OAS Election Observer Mission was pleased to have declared that the March 2 poll was, in almost all respects, well executed…However, the process employed by the Returning Officer for Region Four is not transparent and, based on the numbers that have emanated since the process was first disrupted, is unlikely to produce a result that is credible and is able to command public confidence,” the mission said as it withdrew from the process.
Like the diplomatic community and other observer groups would have warned, the entity positioned that the legitimacy of a Government under the aforementioned circumstances would be a “terrible blow to the country’s democracy”, adding that the “legitimacy of any Government that is installed in these circumstances will be open to question. The people of Guyana do not deserve this.”
A high-level team was put together after Caricom’s Chairman, Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados intervened to oversee the recount of the ballots; but the team had withdrawn from the process following a court injunction to block the process.
The team comprised of former Attorney General and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Dominica, Francine Baron, and former Minister of Finance of Grenada, Anthony Boatswain; Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government of UWI, Cynthia Barrow-Giles; Chief Electoral Officer of Barbados, Angela Taylor; and Chief Elections Officer of Trinidad and Tobago, Fern Narcis-Scope.
United States Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo in a statement had also reinforced the importance of free, fair and credible elections in Guyana. He had sent a blunt warning saying: “Individuals who seek to benefit from electoral fraud and form illegitimate Government, [or] regimes will be subject to a variety of serious consequences from the United States.”