GEORGETOWN, Guyana — The President David Granger-led Administration on Friday said it is confident in the ability of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to deliver a credible report at the end of the National Recount of the March 2020 General and Regional Elections, the Guyana Chronicle reported on Saturday, May 16.
A group of US Senators – Marco Rubio, James E. Risch, Benjamin L. Cardin, Robert Menendez and Tim Kaine – in a letter had lobbied President David Granger for the return of international observers, including those from the Carter Centre, to observe the ongoing National Recount. The US Senators, in the letter, had underscored the importance of having credible international observers present during the recount.
But Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Karen Cummings, in responding to the US Senators on behalf of President Granger, established the Government’s confidence in CARICOM to deliver a credible report on the recount, having scrutinized the process.
“Guyana, equally, is confident in the legitimacy, credibility and competence of the CARICOM Team to perform its task,” the Foreign Affairs Minister told the US Senators in a correspondence on Friday, May 15, 2020 while alluding to the fact that CARICOM sees itself as “the most legitimate interlocutors” in the ongoing electoral process.
The CARICOM high-level scrutinising team, which comprises Senior Lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Cynthia Barrow-Giles; Commissioner of the Antigua and Barbuda Electoral Commission, John Jarvis; and Supervisor of St Vincent Electoral Commission; Sylvester King, arrived in Guyana on May 1 to observe the country’s recount based on an agreement between President Granger and the Leader of Opposition Bharrat in March, 2020.
In proving a background to the presence of the CARICOM delegation here in Guyana, Minister Cummings explained that the President had invited the Prime Ministers of five Caribbean States – Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago – to visit Guyana on 11th and 12th March in light of the post-election challenges that had arisen. See complete story in Guyana Chronicle at http://guyanachronicle.com/2020/05/16/guyana-to-us-senatorscaricom-can-do-the-job
