Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Sir Shridath Ramphal yesterday said that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) can still play a role in supervising a recount of the ballots cast in the March 2 general and regional elections and has urged that peace and progress be pursued lawfully and transparently.
“Guyana is being deprived of regional and international approval and the opportunity for global respect at a time when it matters most,” Ramphal contended in a statement yesterday, even as he said that it is “utterly regrettable” that, despite the highest-level agreement between the political leaders of Guyana and five CARICOM Heads of Government acting for the Community, the CARICOM team invited to oversee the recount of the votes had to withdraw.
“CARICOM has not closed the door to proving the preciousness of its familial ties with Guyana; it can still play the role Guyana’s two political leaders agreed it should,” he said.
On Tuesday, a high-level team from CARICOM that was due to oversee a recount of votes cast at the March 2 elections departed Guyana as a court order blocked the Guyana Elections Commis-sion (GECOM) from proceeding although both President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat had Jagdeo agreed to the process.
According to Ramphal, also a former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, CARICOM’s intervention in trying to resolve the general elections process at the request of both Granger and Jagdeo was a ray of light.
“All Guyana should have welcomed it, as most Guyanese did. It is a wholly legitimate role of community that must not be smothered under any pretext whatever,” he said.
“What is required now is for all to place the interest of the nation above other narrow considerations that could mar the country’s prospects and retard the strides that the people of Guyana have made collectively,” said Ramphal, a long-term consultant to the government who performed the role of Escrow Agent in the controversial Bridging Deed signed by government with ExxonMobil and its partners in 2016.
Among his many roles, Ramphal was one of CARICOM’s “Three Wise Men” who brokered the 1998 Herdmanston Agreement after the impasse of the De-cember 1997 general elections in Guyana.
