Dear Editor,
It is most wholesome to read that Prime Minister (PM) Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips met with the Carter Center team in Guyana for pre-elections’ evaluation. This is a great promissory move with the portent that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic will once again commit to ‘fair and free’ elections and is not going to stymie transparency or independent external observers.
The news reported that the PM “… welcomed a delegation from the Carter Center and discussed the center’s pre-election assessment mission in Guyana, with an emphasis on the… aims to evaluate the necessity of election observers ahead of the 2025 Regional and General Elections … (reaffirming the Government of Guyana’s steadfast commitment to democracy and the rule of law.” As was evident in 2020, the PPP/C is all about “… openness to international electoral observer missions…” and “… maintaining transparent and fair electoral practices.”
This vital visit from the Carter Center has precluded many negatives as there were engagements with various stakeholders, including opposition members (please note that), private sector representatives, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), and civil society organisations. This kind of comprehensive engagement has given great confidence in the pre-election landscape in Guyana. The reason is that the Carter Center will be instrumental (yet again) “… in determining the need for international observers to monitor the upcoming 2025 elections, thereby contributing to the credibility and transparency of the electoral process in Guyana.”
Sincerely,
Hargesh B. Singh
