CARICOM’s electoral rescue mission collapsed dramatically yesterday after legal action against it and Chair of the movement, Mia Mottley charged that there were forces here that do not want the votes from the March 2nd general elections recounted and she warned again that a government sworn in without a credible tabulation would not have legitimacy.
The decision by CARICOM to withdraw its five-member mission came after a person who had been an election candidate for the governing APNU+AFC secured an injunction from the court of Justice Franklyn Holder against the recount.
With a winner of the elections yet to be declared after more than two weeks, the departure of the CARICOM mission left the Granger presidency hanging by a thread and with no credible pathway towards him being sworn in. The CARICOM move also came amidst mounting pressure from Western countries particularly the US over the absolute need for clarity on the Region Four count where the Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo has been accused of twice delivering fictitious figures to make it appear that APNU+AFC had won.
In the most explicit warning yet from the Trump Administration US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday warned that those engaged in electoral fraud here faced grave repercussion.
In a statement last night expressing “deep disappointment” at the stalling of the CARICOM mission, Granger, as he has done in the past on similar occasions, distanced himself from the legal action. Observers have pointed out that since Granger is the one to benefit most from this legal action and other manoeuvres to lengthen his presidency it behoved him to speak out against steps such as yesterday’s application for an injunction which he had not done.
Last night, Mottley, Prime Minister of Barba-dos did not mince words on the failure of the mission.
She said that CARICOM “deeply regrets” that it has been forced to withdraw the independent High Level Team it fielded on Saturday to supervise the re-counting of the ballots in Region 4 of the General and Regional Elections of 2 March 2020 in Guyana.
She noted that the fielding of the team had been at the request of Granger himself.
In response, and given the urgency of the task, she said that the Team was mobilised immediately and arrived in Guyana in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Since the tabulation process had been widely viewed as not being transparent or credible, she noted that Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo agreed that the only possible resolution was by way of a recount supervised by an independent team. This, Mottley said, was seen as a significant contribution to bolstering the transparency and legitimacy of the electoral process.
This development, she pointed out, had been anchored by an Aide Memoire signed by both leaders on 16 March 2020, and the Terms of Reference prepared by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to govern the role of the team for the supervision of the recounting of the ballots, not only in Region 4, but in all 10 electoral districts.
Mottley noted that a court order issued yesterday, granted an injunction restraining GECOM from recounting any ballots from the general elections and set aside “any agreement between the Presi-dent of Guyana and the Leader of the Opposition and or any agreement between the Guyana Elec-tions Commission and the Caribbean Community”.
Under these circumstances, Mottley said that CARICOM had no other choice but to withdraw the High Level Team.
“It is clear that there are forces that do not want to see the votes recounted for whatever reason. Any Government which is sworn in without a credible and fully transparent vote count process would lack legitimacy”, Mottley warned in unusually blunt language.
She thanked the team for offering to serve at such short notice and for displaying the patience they had displayed over the last three days. The team was led by Francine Baron, former Attorney-General and Foreign Minister of Dominica, and included Anthony Boatswain, former Minister of Finance of Grenada and Cynthia Barrow-Giles, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies. They were accompanied by Angela Taylor and Fern Narcis-Scope, the Chief Elections Officers of Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.
“As I said in an earlier statement it is critical that good sense prevail. The preservation of law and order is paramount and all parties must work hard to ensure that there is peace on the roads and in the communities across Guyana. The Community remains committed to the people of Guyana”, Mottley said.
In his statement, just moments before Mottley’s own, Granger noted that an injunction filed by a citizen was granted by the High Court thereby preventing the Elections Commission and its agents from proceeding with the recount.
“This independent court action has curtailed further our thrust towards reaching a transparent conclusion to the 2020 General and Regional Elections,” he said.
At no point in the statement does Granger acknowledge that the action was filed by a member of A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC), the party which he leads
The applicant Ulita Moore is an APNU+AFC candidate at the Regional Elections for Electoral District Four. Moore had also contested the 2018 Local Government Elections as a candidate for the APNU.
The President’s statement makes no mention of these facts instead he reiterates the he will abide by the Constitution of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, the decisions of the Elections Commission and the ruling of the Supreme Court.
“I iterate my commitment to the due completion of all electoral requirements and the conclusion of the process under the auspices of the Commission and in the interest of all Guyanese. I assure the nation that I remain committed to the electoral process and to the declaration of results by the Elections Commission in accordance with the law,” he concluded while calling on the public to be patient and practice forbearance until the process is completed.
