Ballot boxes for all regions to be recounted

Secretary General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Irwin LaRocque has clarified that President David Granger and Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo have agreed to the recounting of the ballot boxes for all the administrative regions under the supervision of a high-level team of regional officials.

The clarification by the Secretary General was made following a statement made earlier on Saturday by Chair of Caricom and Prime Minister of Barbados,Mia Mottley.

She noted on Saturday that the independent High Level Team will be chaired by Francine Baron, former Attorney General and Foreign Minister and comprise Mr. Anthony Boatswain, former Minister of Finance of Grenada and Ms. Cynthia Barrow-Giles, Senior Lecturer in Department of Government of University of the West Indies. They will also be accompanied by the two Chief Election Officers from Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.

Mottley said that after a high-level team of Caribbean Prime Ministers engaged the affected parties this week, CARICOM has remained engaged over the last few days.

She said that after discussions this morning, President Granger made a request for CARICOM to field the team and this has been agreed to by Jagdeo.

“We believe that this is a giant step in being able to determine the will of the Guyanese people in the Election of March 2, 2020. It will also allow the electoral process to regain the confidence of all locally, regionally and internationally,”Mottley said.

She said she spoke directly to both the President and Jagdeo and they have both committed to abide by the results of a fair and transparent recount of each and every ballot, as supervised by the CARICOM team. “We also agreed that there needs to be steps taken to secure the integrity of the ballot boxes until the Recount takes place,” she said.

She said the President and the Leader of the Opposition have agreed that the recount should commence once the CARICOM team is on the ground.

“I can confirm that all efforts are being made to have the team in Guyana as soon as possible. A further announcement will be made as to the exact details once the team is on the ground,”she said.