CARICOM high-level team arrives to supervise election recount

A Caricom High Level Team is now in Guyana to supervise the re-counting of ballots from the country’s 2 March 2020 Election, the secretariat announced today.

CARICOM secretariat, Chairman of the regional bloc, Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, on Saturday announced that Guyana’s President David Granger made a request for the Caribbean Community to field an Independent High-Level Team to supervise the recounting of the ballots in all Regions, and that this was agreed to by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo.

“I’ve spoken directly to both the President and Leader of the Opposition 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,” the CARICOM Chairman said.

The Independent High level team is chaired by the former Attorney-General and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Dominica Ms Francine Baron, and comprise former Minister of Finance of Grenada Mr Anthony Boatswain; Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government of UWI Ms Cynthia Barrow-Giles; Chief Electoral Officer of Barbados Ms Angela Taylor; and Chief Elections Officer of Trinidad and Tobago Ms Fern Narcis-Scope.

Although the onus is on the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to grant a recount, CARICOM has said that both President Granger and Jagdeo have agreed for a recount of all regions and not just Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), where there was much contention.

Since the March 2 General and Regional Elections, the tabulation process for Region Four was marred by a series of events, from the Returning Officer (RO) and his staff falling sick, to the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) repedly storming the GECOM command centre, to an injunction barring declaration of the results and subsequently, a series of objections.

Eight political parties had requested a recount for the contentious Region Four on Saturday, the same day Chairman of CARICOM, Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley announced that President David Granger made a request for the regional bloc to field an independent high-level team to supervise the recounting the ballots.