Former Prime Minister of Senegal Aminata Toure, who is co-head of the Carter Center’s observer mission for these elections, today called on Guyanese to be patient as they go out to cast their votes. She also expressed the hope that everyone would be able to express their right to vote.
“This is a big day for Guyanese democracy, my message to Guyanese people is to go out and vote because we do know that through democracy we build our nations as one so it is very important that people go out, young people, women, elderly and people with handicap…”
Both herself and Jason Carter, who is also co-heading the team, declined to say what they would have observed hours into the voting process but said they will await reports from all their teams, analyse same and then give a report on March 4th.
The Center has more than 40 observers, some of whom have been here since January, and Carter said one of the ways Guyanese need to exercise patience is to wait until the complete picture is given and not look at reports from individual polling stations. They are also coordinating and listening to other international and domestic observers to ensure that there is transparency. According to him “this is a very observed elections in all corners of Guyana”.
The two started their visiting since 5:30 am and planned to continue their visits throughout the day and then witness the counting and tabulation. Carter said they saw some places with long lines and some very short lines but the excitement was evident among voters.
Carter noted that this is the fifth election the Center has observed since its first in 1992.
“We are here collecting information today, we have been here for several months observing the process, we have teams in every single region in Guyana today observing and in the next few days we will be collecting those reports and will be issuing recommendations with respect to this elections,” Carter said.
According to Carter his family, of which former US President Jimmy Carter is the patriarch, has a very close connection to Guyana and they are committed to its democracy and has seen the people of Guyana also committed to their democracy.
