Former US President Jimmy Carter yesterday flew back to Atlanta, Georgia after feeling unwell, dealing a blow to many who had hoped for his presence at today’s general elections and for the declaration of the final results.
Carter, 90, had been here to head up the Carter Center’s observer mission to today’s crucial general election. The mission will nevertheless continue in his absence.
Reports say that Carter visited the Balwant Singh Hospital on Saturday night and stayed
there for about an hour. He then returned to the Pegasus Hotel. No information on his ailment was provided by the Center but he is reported to have come down with a viral infection. Carter arrived here on Friday and had a round of meetings including with the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom). Before leaving yesterday he met with President Donald Ramotar and APNU+AFC presidential candidate David Granger at the Pegasus Hotel.
Both presidential hopefuls told this newspaper that the meetings went well and that they both discussed their concerns and observations of the electoral process.
President Donald Ramotar told Stabroek News that the meeting “went very well” and that he outlined to Carter some of his party’s concerns about today’s elections. “It went very good this morning with him…we spoke about some of our election concerns, bullying tactics that might be used by the opposition and so forth”.
Ramotar said that he also gave his views of his three years in office and how he felt about the opposition’s stymieing of his government’s development plans and projects.
He also shared with Carter his party’s stance on changes in the constitution since Carter was last here. “We told him of the committees in parliament that we have had set up and how the powers of the president had been reduced and so on,” he said.
Granger’s meeting with the former US President was also to give his views on today’s elections and concerns that he might have.
“I met him early this morning and he was interested in my perception of the election process and Gecom and I was able to discuss in a frank manner my concerns about the process. I expressed satisfaction that once the process was free and fair the outcome would be in our favour.
Granger told Stabroek News that a team from the coalition, had a second meeting with the Carter Center team, yesterday afternoon which is co-headed by Dames Billie Miller and Audrey Glover. “We had a second meeting this afternoon …at the second meeting we went over the same things and stressed that we hoped that the process won’t be contaminated by improper behaviour,” Granger added.
Carter has had a long association with Guyana stretching back to 1990 when he played a key role in ensuring electoral reforms and later monitoring the pivotal 1992 general elections. At the landmark 1992 polls he was seen as a key player in having the results of the elections accepted amid tensions on the streets of Georgetown.
Scott Light, a CBS reporter who travelled with Carter to Guyana on Friday related in his online report the whirlwind of events that led to Carter returning to the US. He reported that he was awakened just after midnight yesterday at the Pegasus and told that Carter wasn’t feeling well and that his security/medical staff had determined that he should return to Atlanta. He and his cameraman were given 15 minutes to decide whether to return with Carter to the US and after a discussion with their newsroom this was agreed.
Light said that departure was set at 10.30 am yesterday and he was amazed to see Carter walking down the hallway at around 9.30 am.
Said Light: “Here’s a former president who’s been ordered by his security/medical team to return home and he’s walking to meet a former president of Guyana, the current president and his main political challenger. Carter is indefatigable”.
Light added about the trip to the airport: “They were running lights and sirens and it was THE coolest ride to the airport in my lifetime. NO traffic. Everyone pulls over to let the motorcade through. Forty-five minutes later, we pull onto the tarmac 30 feet from our next ride. A Gulfstream 4 charter jet.
“We board the plane and head back to Atlanta. Mr. Carter didn’t come back and chat with us this time. However, once we landed at Peachtree-Dekalb Airport, he let a little tidbit slip. As Eric and I were trying to shimmy past him in tight quarters of the plane, he said, “I don’t want anyone else to get my virus.”
“So there you go. It’s a virus. I asked Deanna if Mr. Carter would see a doctor immediately upon his return. She said that wasn’t needed and once on the ground he was going back to The Carter Center to continue his day. Working. Again, he’s inexhaustible. At 90.”
