The Women and Gender Equality Commission (WGEC) has condemned the “offensive, personalised and abusive” remarks being levelled against the Chair of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley on social media and in the press.
“For many Guyanese and Carib-bean women and men – Mia Mottley is an exemplary Caribbean leader. She is deserving of our respect,” the commission said in a statement yesterday.
Mottley has come under withering attack on social media by supporters of APNU+AFC after she slammed the “gamesmanship” surrounding the Guyana elections and expressed bewilderment that the Chief Election Officer could by his own volition cancel over 115,000 votes. She also stressed that the figures verified at the recount are the valid results of the March 2 General Elections.
The WGEC statement observed that it was at the invitation of both President David Granger and opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo that CARICOM, led by Mottley in her capacity as its Chairperson, offered its assistance in the form of an Independent High-Level Team to observe the Recount process. The agreement between the two political leaders was cemented in an Aide Memoire. Both the president and opposition leader agreed to abide by credible and transparent results of the Recount process, the statement recalled.
“Whether one agrees or disagrees with the CARICOM Observer Report on the Guyana Elections and the Recount process, there is no need whatsoever for the insults being levelled against Mia Mottley, who is standing by the Report,” the commission declared.
It noted that Guyana is part of CARICOM and officially signed the Charter of Civil Society, which is a compact between civil society and CARICOM members. Under Article 6, it says: “States shall ensure the existence of a fair and open democratic system through the holding of free elections at reasonable intervals, by secret ballot, underpinned by an electoral system in which all can have confidence and which will ensure the free expression of the will of the people in the choice of their representatives.”
“We can agree or disagree with the Elections results in Guyana which are always contentious – the 2020 Elections are particularly so. However, the leaders of both major parties agreed to have CARICOM here to do a specific job which they did,” the commission said.
“Let us be civil to each other in Guyana – even in contentious times and let us be civil to our Caribbean Community leaders and peoples even in times of contention between us,” it urged.
