The Carter Center remains interested in observing the recount of votes from the March 2nd general elections and will be following up with the authorities here on requests that were submitted last week.
It is also fully prepared to comply with COVID-19 pandemic guidelines, according to its spokesperson Soyia Ellison.
In response to queries from Stabroek News over the weekend, Elllison today told Stabroek News:
The Carter Center is interested in returning to observe the recount and has expressed this interest in letters to various government officials, including members of Guyana’s National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF).
The Center has taken note of the recent comments by Joe Harmon, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National COVID-19 Taskforce Secretariat, indicating that the Center can return to Guyana to observe the recount. We are following up to confirm that the requests we submitted last week have been received and that we intend to comply with measures in place to prevent the spread COVID-19.
On Saturday, Harmon had said that the Carter Center can return to Guyana to observe the national recount of votes if it requests permission through the right channels and complies with the measures in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“If you are coming from overseas, you have to be tested and you have to have a certificate that is valid, I believe, for seven days or so. If you do not have that and you get permission and you come here you have to be quarantined for 14 days,” Harmon said in response to question posed by Sunday Stabroek outside the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
The Center had hoped to fly in an observer on May 4 for the start of the recount but was unable to do so as COVID-19 requirements had not been addressed. The recount still has weeks to go and Western countries and the private sector have urged that the Center be allowed to return.
