Preserver of democracy in Guyana elected chair of US Foreign Affairs Committee

UNITED States Congressman, Gregory Meeks, has been elected the new chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, making him the first African American to lead the powerful congressional body, Al Jazeera has reported.

Meeks, a Democrat who represents New York’s Fifth District and a senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus, defeated Texas Democrat, Joaquin Castro, in a vote of 148-78. Brad Sherman of California earlier dropped out of the race, the global news organisation headquartered in Doha, Qatar said.

The congressman back in July had condemned the rigging of Guyana’s elections, noting that he was a friend of Guyana with his last trip to the country being in January 2020.
In July, 2020, he urged the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to promptly issue a Declaration of Results based on the results of the national recount.
The congressman was joined by CARICOM, the Organisation of American States, diplomatic missions, and domestic civil society organisations that wanted the correct declaration of results by GECOM.

“We strongly support the multilateral efforts made to support the people of Guyana throughout this process, which have been led by CARICOM and supported by the U.S. Embassy, the European Union, the Canadian and British High Commissions, and the Organisation of American States. While we do not endorse President Trump’s and Secretary Pompeo’s unilateral approach to conducting foreign policy around the world, we stand with our career diplomats and with the international community, which is completely unified in calling for the immediate Declaration of Results based on the recount,” Congressman Meeks and his colleague, Congressman Albio Sires, had noted in a press statement in July.

The statement continued: “We condemn all efforts to undermine the credibility of the March 2 election, including recent actions taken by the Chief Elections Officer to effectively disenfranchise thousands of voters and manipulate the vote count. We fully support GECOM Chairwoman Claudette Singh’s decision to dismiss all of the Chief Elections Officer’s fraudulent reports and are confident that she will declare a winner based on the actual vote count, as certified through the recount process. Guyana’s leaders must prioritise national unity and the long-term health of Guyana’s democratic institutions and abide by the will of the Guyanese people, as reflected in the recount results.”

The congressman had commended Guyanese for their remarkable patience over the five-month ordeal they endured under the David Granger-led Coalition Government.
Meanwhile, Meeks told US news outlet, The Hill, last month that if he won the chairmanship, he would focus on rebuilding the country’s relationships with its allies and rebuilding the US Department of State.

“The State Department is at its lowest in morale in all of the 22 years that I’ve been in Congress,” Meeks said, adding that, “As I talk to diplomats, career diplomats, it is unbelievable from what they tell me as to the low morale and what has taken place there.”

Five months after the March 2 General and Regional Elections, GECOM announced that the PPP/C had won the elections after a slew of legal challenges by supporters of the Coalition were thrown out by the courts.

People’s National Congress/Reform’s (PNC/R), Volda Lawrence, along with several other party activists and GECOM operatives, including the Commission’s Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, and Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, were subsequently slapped with electoral fraud charges.

The charges alleged that Lawrence, on March 5, 2020, at High and Hadfield Streets, Georgetown, conspired with GECOM’s Returning Officer for Region Four, Clairmont Mingo and others to declare a fraudulent account of votes for District Four in the March 2 elections.

GECOM’s Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield is also facing a number of electoral fraud charges.