Speaking at a meeting of the OAS Permanent Council, Ambassador and chair of the CARICOM group, Noel Lynch provided an update with regards to Guyana’s recount process which commenced a week ago.
Lynch declared that CARICOM has no interest in which political party wins the elections, “CARICOM’s interest is that, at the end of the recounting process, democracy must be the winner”.
“Democracy is sacrosanct in CARICOM as a Treaty Organisation, and the institution will not abide its erosion,” Lynch noted.
Upon invitation and consent of all parties the CARICOM team members are currently scrutinizing the recount of the votes in an effort to see a transparent and credible result, and a legitimate government elected.
“We are carrying out that key role diligently, under the guiding principle that every valid vote must be counted, and every vote must count,” he noted.
Ambassador Lynch explained that CARICOM countries are not only held together by rules but by values rooted in centuries of history and fraternity, and in a bitter struggle for their peoples’ rights, including the right to elect governments freely and fairly in a democratic process.
“If democracy fails in any CARICOM country, it fails in the larger community… As an institution, CARICOM cannot allow this to happen in any member state,” Ambassador affirmed.
Further, Ambassador Lynch noted two reasons why the recount process may go beyond the 25 days originally estimated for its completion.
“This inordinate time is due to two factors. The first is the intense scrutiny to which each ballot is being subjected for the satisfaction of all the contending political parties, and each observer mission. The second is the physical distancing rules that have had to be applied because of COVID-19,” said Lynch, “This latter factor limits the number of people who can participate in the manual counting and in observation of the counting stations.”
Ambassador also made mention of the irregularities that occurred not in the system by which the Guyanese electorate cast their votes on March 2, but in the presentation of the count afterwards. As such, CARICOM believes the Guyanese people deserve a credible and transparent process to put into office a legitimate government that they elected and therefore have intentions to conclude this process in a credible manner.
“CARICOM takes its scrutineering role in this recount extremely seriously. We intend to see it through to a transparent and credible conclusion,” Lynch promised.
