St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has said that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) expects that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will honour the results of the national vote recount from Guyana’s March 2 polls and use them to declare a winner.
“I am satisfied that CARICOM will not stand by idly and watch the recount– which was properly done–for the results to be set aside,” Gonsalves said yesterday during an appearance on NBC Radio St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ ‘Your Morning Cup,’ which was also broadcast live on Facebook. “We expect the CARICOM observer mission to deliver its report and we expect that what is the recount would be honoured and the Guyana Election Commission will honour that recount and declare the winner in accordance with this recount,” he added.
Gonsalves, who said CARICOM would not “tolerate anybody stealing an election,” added that anybody who wants to challenge anything afterwards can go to court. “But you have to declare the winner in accordance with the recount,” he said.
Gonsalves was part of a CARICOM delegation that was led here by CARICOM Chairperson and Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley in March to help resolve the crisis that arose after the controversy over the tabulation of the Region Four vote count led to an impasse on the outcome of the polls.
The recount shows that the opposition PPP/C won the elections but the incumbent APNU+AFC has claimed that numerous irregularities it has uncovered discredit the outcome.
