General Secretary of OAS writes Permanent Council to ‘deal with Guyana’s electoral process’

Luis Almagro, the General Secretary of the Organisation of American (OAS) has officially written the Chairman of the Permanent Council to convene a meeting to “deal with the situation of the electoral process in Guyana.”

The General Secretary shared the official correspondence on his Twitter page on Monday; the letter is addressed to Ambassador Luis Fernando Cordero Montoya.

“I have the honor of addressing Your Excellency to request your support in calling a meeting of the Permanent Council to deal with the situation of the electoral process in Guyana.

“Availing myself of this opportunity to reassure you of my highest consideration.”

The OAS is made up of 35 member states.

Guyana remains in limbo over four months after citizens voted at the March 2 polls and no winner has been declared.

A national vote recount supervised by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) revealed the Opposition People’s Progressive Party as the winner of the polls by over 15,000 votes but the incumbent APNU+AFC, led by Brigadier (rt’d) David Granger has refused to concede defeat.

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is meeting to decide on what to do with the country’s Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, and the elections report he presented Saturday last.

Lowenfield was three times asked to submit a report based on the national vote recount but each time, he has doctored his report to show a win for the Coalition APNU+AFC.

As a result of Lowenfield’s brazen rebellion, political parties have mounted pressure on the chairman Justice Retired Claudette Singh to dismiss him with immediate effect.

The Organisation of American States (OAS) in one of its strongest statements yet, said there can be no justification for Lowenfield’s actions.

According to the OAS in its June 11 statement, this confirms that the Chief Elections Officer is acting in bad faith and contrary to the interest of democracy in Guyana.

The OAS made it clear that the only democratic solution for Guyana at this time is respect for the results of the national recount.

No other figures – neither those prepared prior to the recount, nor those recently invalidated by the Caribbean Court of Justice, nor any others that may be unilaterally devised by the Chief Elections Officer – can have any place in the final determination of results,” the OAS said.