CARICOM TEAM to Supervise Guyana Elections Recount 

An independent high-level team from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will supervise the re-counting of ballots in all regions of Guyana.

Chairman of CARICOM, Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, led a high-level team of Caribbean Prime Ministers to Georgetown earlier this week to meet with all of the affected parties from the recent General Election of March 2, 2020.

CARICOM has remained engaged over the last few days.

A release issued by the Chairman Mottley today, March 14 said after discussions this morning, “President Granger made a request for the Caribbean Community to field an independent  high-level team to supervise  the re-counting of the ballots in Region 4 in accordance with the ruling of the Chief Justice of March 11, 2020. This has been agreed to by Mr Bharrat Jagdeo.

In a second release Mottley clarified that both President Granger and Opposition Leader Jagdeo have agreed to a recount of all Regions and not just Region 4.

“We believe that this is a giant step in being able to determine the will of the Guyanese people in the Election of March 2, 2020. It will also allow the electoral process to regain the confidence of all locally, regionally and internationally.”

Mottley said she has spoken directly to both the President and the 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.

“We also agreed that there needs to be steps taken to secure the integrity of the ballot boxes until the Recount takes place.”

The Independent High Level Team will be chaired by Francine Baron, former Attorney General and Foreign Minister of Dominica.

Other members of the team are Anthony Boatswain, former Minister of Finance of Grenada and Cynthia Barrow-Giles, Senior Lecturer in Department of Government of UWI.

They will also be accompanied by the two Chief Elections Officers from Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.

“Both President Granger and the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Jagdeo have agreed that the recount should commence once the CARICOM team is on the ground,” Mottley said.

“I can confirm that all efforts are being made to have the team in Guyana as soon as possible.  A further announcement will be made as to the exact details once the team is on the ground.”