Mar 14, 2020   - Bridgetown Barbados.

Guyana Elections.

CARICOM Team To Supervise Election Recount

Statement by Chairman of CARICOM, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley re: CARICOM team to supervise Guyana elections recount

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.

Many of you are aware that I led a high-level team of Caribbean Prime Ministers to Georgetown earlier this week to meet with all of the affected parties from the recent General Election of March 2, 2020.

CARICOM has remained engaged over the last few days.

I  would wish to announce that after discussions this morning, President Granger made a request for the Caribbean Community to field an independent high-level team to supervise the re-counting of the ballots in Region 4, in accordance with the ruling of the Chief Justice of 11 March, 2020.  This has been agreed to by Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo.

We believe that this is a giant step in being able to determine the will of the Guyanese people in the Election of March 2, 2020.  It will also allow the electoral process to regain the confidence of all locally, regionally and internationally.

I have spoken directly to both the President and the Leader of the  Opposition and they have both committed to abide by the results of a fair and transparent recount of each and every ballot, as supervised by the CARICOM team.  We also agreed that there needs to be steps taken to secure the integrity of the ballot boxes until the recount takes place.

The Independent High Level Team will be chaired by Francine Baron, former Attorney General and Foreign Minister and comprise Mr. Anthony Boatswain, former Minister of Finance of Grenada and Ms. Cynthia Barrow-Giles, Senior Lecturer in Department of Government of UWI.  They will also be accompanied by two electoral officials from Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.

Both President Granger and the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Jagdeo have agreed that the recount should commence once the CARICOM team is on the ground.

I  can confirm that all efforts are being made to have the team in Guyana as soon as possible.  A further announcement will be made as to the exact details once the team is on the ground.

CARICOM Chairman, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley

CARICOM Chair and Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley and CARICOM Secretary General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque. (FP)