Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland yesterday met with the Chair and Commissioners of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) during its weekly statutory meeting.
According to Commissioner Sase Gunraj, the meeting was a cordial one where they discussed the recent general and regional elections.
“She thanked the commission for the work it did during the five months,” he said during a brief telephone interview.
During the prolonged elections period, the Commonwealth Secretary-General has been very vocal for the upholding of a fair count of votes and had made various appeals at crucial points of the process. On March 16, 2020, after then-President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo agreed to a national recount of the ballots, she had said that it was a welcome decision.
“My statement of 13 March expressed deep concern that the tabulation of Region 4 results after the 2 March General and Regional Elections was not transparently conducted in accordance with the ruling of the Acting Chief Justice. The Commonwealth Observer Group to Guyana informed me it is the clear view of the Group that the subsequent tabulation in Region 4 was not conducted in accordance with the judgement of the Acting Chief Justice and is therefore not credible.
“In this regard, I welcome and commend the regional leadership of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), at the invitation of President David Granger, to deploy a high-level mission to Guyana, to supervise a recount of the ballots cast in all ten regions of the recently concluded elections,” she had said in a statement.
Following the conclusion of the recount of ballots, the SG had urged for acceptance of the results after the then government was contending that the count was illegal and plagued with voters’ irregularity.
“On 15 June 2020, I welcomed the CARICOM Observer Report on the recently concluded recount in Guyana. The CARICOM Report was clear that the recount results represented the will of the people of Guyana as expressed on 2 March 2020 when they exercised their right to vote.
“It has recently been reported that the Chief Elections Officer has presented results to the Guy-ana Elections Commission (GECOM) that do not reflect that which was certified at the end of the recount process. If this is indeed true, it would be contrary to the fundamental principles which are treasured by the Common-wealth family and are enshrined in our Common-wealth Charter. We call on all responsible parties to consider the consequences to Guyana’s reputation as a democratic country if such an approach was allowed to stand,” Scotland had urged.
Subsequently, following the declaration of the recount results and swearing-in of Irfaan Ali as president, Scotland reaffirmed the Commonwealth’s commitment to the strengthening of democratic and inclusive governance in Guyana.
“I wish to reaffirm the Commonwealth’s unwavering commitment to supporting the people of Guyana in their quest to strengthen democratic and inclusive governance and ensure sustainable socio-economic development in the country,” she had said.
It is unclear whether the commitment was again discussed at the meeting GECOM and subsequent meetings with other leaders.
GECOM was expected to meet yesterday to discuss filling six key operational vacancies but according to Gunraj that did not come up in their discussions.
GECOM is currently looking to fill the posts of Deputy Chief Election Officer (CEO), Assistant CEO, Chief Accountant, Legal Officer, Logistics Manager, Civic and Voter Education Manager. Those posts were advertised since early October 2021 along with that of the CEO. The process to fill the vacancy of CEO was a tedious one that ran for more than three months.
