BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - CARICOM is now intervening to help resolve the election impasse rocking Guyana, two weeks later.
Citizens and residents in Guyana went to the polls on March 2 to exercise their franchise, and the country still does not know officially who are the winners.
The latest result from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) gives the incumbent coalition AFC+APNU the victory; however, the major opposition party, the PPP/C, is not accepting that result and is calling for a recount.
A high-delegation from the regional bloc arrived in Guyana today (Mar. 15) to oversee the recounting process so that the elections results can be resolved.
According to the CARICOM Secretariat, CARICOM Chairman, Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced yesterday 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.
That was also agreed to by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo.
The two major political entities have been locked in a bitter battle over the results for the largest voting district, Region 4, which, according to media reports, has over 200,000 votes.
Initial results announced by the elections commissions had the incumbent coalition winning that region by over 60,000 votes which was enough to give them the outright victory.
However, the PPP/C moved to the court challenging the tabulation process used.
Following that matter the Returning Officer who is responsible for overseeing the votes again gave the coalition the win.
Both the Coalition AFC+APNU and the PPP/C are requesting a recount.
Meantime, Mottley said she spoke 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 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.
