“We said what we have said” – CARICOM Chair Mia Mottley

CARICOM is standing by the strong pronouncements made by its Chair, Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who weighed in on Guyana’s political situation, expressing concern over the actions of Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, in his attempt to scrap a total of 115, 844 votes cast in the March 2, 2020 elections.

Hours after releasing her statement, Mottley appeared on Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) CNC3 News where she said that CARICOM is keeping a watchful eye on the situation.
“We’ve said what we have said for now. We are watching the situation – The heads of government are particularly, particularly attuned to the fact that these situations are difficult,” the Chair said during the interview.
According to her, the three-member CARICOM Observer Team was satisfied that the March 2 Election recount process was certified by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and stood as a credible basis for the declaration of results.

Those results are not what were used when the CEO presented his report to the GECOM Chair, Ret’d Justice Claudette Singh and the Commission.
“What is going on,” the Barbadian PM noted “is a little bizarre to say the least but we shall wait and see and let the process play out over the next few days but suffice it to say that there is a Charter of Civil Society within Caribbean Communities that causes us to have to aspire to a very high level of behaviour with respect to free and fair elections and with respect to giving full effect to the will of the people.”

No election, according to Mottley, is “worth the life of a single human being…there is no election that is worth damaging the reputation, not only of one country but our community.”
“The Caribbean has been one of those few regions that have seen people move from poverty, absolute abject poverty in the 1930’s where we had riots across almost every country to the point where we were well on our way to meeting many of the world’s sustainable development goals, going forward.

Obviously, we have had some difficulties but the reason why we have made such progress is because we have given such great stock to caring about people and building for people,” the Chair said.
The CARICOM Chairwoman posited that the continued developmental goals of CARICOM are “critical”, and their involvement in Guyana’s political situation emerges from their obligations to “stand for something” to achieve same.
But this cannot be done, according to her, “if our slip is showing.”

“The Caribbean Community must stand for something with respect to the pursuit of these goals and with respect to the pursuit of the values that have made us stand up as a beacon in the global community and to be able to speak truth to power when we need to speak truth to power.”