While President Donald Ramotar refuses to concede defeat, the heads of the United States, British and Canadian diplomatic missions in Guyana have reiterated their confidence in the tabulation of results from Monday’s general and regional elections.
In a joint statement issued this afternoon, Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy Bryan Hunt, British High Commissioner Gregory Quinn and Canadian High Commissioner Dr. Nicole Giles said they “found nothing that would materially impact the integrity or credibility of the process” and urged any party with concerns to use the established process for making disputes known rather than resorting to the media.
Based on the preliminary results released by the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom), the opposition coalition APNU+AFC won the elections with 206,817 votes to the PPP/C’s 201,457 votes, reflecting a difference of 5,360. In response, Ramotar has demanded a full manual recount, while saying the process was rigged.
The joint statement follows:
Guyana Has Had a Free and Fair Election
The Embassy of the United States of America and the High Commissions of the United Kingdom and Canada wish to reiterate our strong and considered opinion that the voting and tabulation processes in the Guyanese national and regional elections were free, fair, and credible. Despite investigating, in collaboration with other observer missions, repeated allegations of irregularities, we have found nothing that would materially impact the integrity or credibility of the process.
The Guyana Elections Commission has an effective verification and dispute resolution process that is functioning well. International experts continue to observe this process. We encourage any political party with concerns about any preliminary results to use the established process with the Guyana Elections Commission to make those disputes known rather than resorting to the media.
The Guyana Elections Commission is working to complete final results as early as possible under Guyanese law. We call on all Guyanese to be patient during that process and for all political leaders to respect the final results. We also call on all political parties to keep their promise to respect the Code of Conduct for Political Parties.
