PPP won elections, prepare for transition – OAS observer team tells Guyana

The Organization of America States (OAS) has told the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh, that the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) has won Guyana’s 2020 elections, as shown in the recently published report of the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield, and as such, the A Partnership For National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) must begin the process of transition—which will allow the legitimately elected government to take its place.

In a statement to the press yesterday, the OAS, who acted as one of the international observers missions which monitors the March 2 General and Regional Elections, supported the findings of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which yesterday published their observations of the national recount exercise, which were deemed as transparent and credible, and “nothing prevents the Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission from now declaring the election, based on these results.”

Compounding upon the credibility of the recount results, the OAS made reference to their June 4 statement in which OAS observers who were present on each day of the national recount had reported that the process was conducted in a professional, transparent and impartial fashion, which allowed GECOM, political parties and other stakeholders to accurately determine the results for each polling station. Against this, “the OAS reiterates that there is no reason not to support the results of the recount process.”

Furthermore, the OAS made highlight of the that gazetted order for the recount, which required that “ascertained and verified” matrices of the results for each of the ten electoral districts be submitted to the CEO, who would then tabulate these results and submit them to GECOM, along with a summary of the observation reports prepared for each District.
OAS noted that the report submitted by Lowenfield on June 13, records multiple “allegations” of irregularities by a contesting party in each District, which are then used as a basis for determining that the electoral process in each of the ten Districts was not credible.

However the OAS was quick to point out that, “There is little evidence in the CEO’s report of efforts to investigate or otherwise address any of the alleged irregularities presented. His contention that the entire election be set aside on this basis alone is astonishing.”

In its statement of April 15, prior to the commencement of the recount, the OAS had recommended the exclusion of any official who had displayed partisan behaviour during the electoral process. While the CEO’s approach to his report is therefore disappointing, it is not unexpected, they said.