The Organization of American States (OAS) General Secretariat yesterday welcomed the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) deployment of a high-level mission to supervise a recount of the ballots from the March 2 general and regional elections here.
CARICOM Chairman, Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, on Saturday announced that President David Granger made a request for CARICOM to field an independent high-level team to supervise the recounting of the ballots in all regions, and that this was agreed to by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo. The team arrived in Guyana yesterday but up to last evening the recount had not yet started. A controversial tabulation process for Region Four has been discredited by observers and nearly all of the contesting parties, except for the incumbent APNU+AFC coalition and had prompted claims of fraud.
The OAS’ Electoral Observation Mission on March 13 withdrew from the country saying that the tabulation process for Region Four was not transparent and warned that the legitimacy of any government installed in these circumstances will be open to question.