CARICOM HIGH LEVEL TEAM ARRIVES IN GUYANA TO SUPERVISE RE-COUNT OF BALLOTS FROM MARCH 2 ELECTIONS

The Independent High-Level Mission (from left): Ms Angela Taylor, Chief Electoral Officer, Barbados; Mr Anthony Boatswain, former Finance Minister, Grenada; Ms Francine Baron, Chair of the Team and former Attorney General and Foreign Minister, Dominica; Ms Fern Nacis-Scope, Chief Elections Officer, Trinidad and Tobago; Ms Cynthia Barrow-Giles, Senior Lecturer, Department of Government, UWI.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, March 15 — A CARICOM High Level Team is now in Guyana to supervise the re-counting of ballots from the country’s March 2, 2020 Election.

CARICOM secretariat, Chairman of the regional bloc, Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, on Saturday announced that Guyana’s President David Granger made a request for the Caribbean Community to field an Independent High-Level Team to supervise the recounting of the ballots in all Regions, and that this was agreed to by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo.

“I’ve spoken directly to both the President and Leader of the Opposition and they have both committed to abide by the results of a fair and transparent recount of each and every ballot, as supervised by the CARICOM Team,” the CARICOM Chairman said.

The Independent High level team is chaired by the former Attorney-General and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Dominica Ms Francine Baron, and comprise former Minister of Finance of Grenada Mr Anthony Boatswain; Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government of UWI Ms Cynthia Barrow-Giles; Chief Electoral Officer of Barbados Ms Angela Taylor; and Chief Elections Officer of Trinidad and Tobago Ms Fern Narcis-Scope.

Although the onus is on the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to grant a recount, CARICOM has said that both President Granger and Jagdeo have agreed for a recount of all regions and not just Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), where there was much contention. See full story in Guyana Chronicle at http://guyanachronicle.com/2020/03/15/caricom-high-level-team-arrives-to-supervise-election-recount