General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday called on the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to request the return of international observers for the ongoing recount of votes from the March 2 polls, while saying that the three-member CARICOM team that has been observing the process is not enough.
“We are very, very, happy that the CARICOM team came back even after the way they were treated at the beginning by APNU [A Partnership for National Unity]. They were forced out of the country when they had five persons… to supervise the recount. They came back here and we are very, very, happy they’re back but it’s not the same team and now there are three persons from CARICOM here and there are 10 works stations with the possibility of increasing those to 16…. We are happy they are here and we want to thank CARICOM for sending them but they are not adequate,” Jagdeo said during a PPP online briefing, while noting that the team that was sent to supervise the recount has been downgraded by GECOM to an observer mission.
He went to say that that although President David Granger said that he will not be getting involved in the election process, he has gotten directly involved when he did not approve the return of Carter Center observers despite the fact that several United States senators and congressmen have written to him asking for additional observes be permitted.