May 02, 2020 News
By Kemol King
The Government of Canada has taken it upon itself to fund the mission of the CARICOM High Level team for the national elections recount, and has registered its pride in supporting CARICOM leadership in this endeavour.
The High Level delegation arrived yesterday afternoon at the Eugene F. Correia International Airport, and will be staying at the Marriot Hotel.
They were met at the airport by the CARICOM Secretariat’s Assistant Secretary-General for Foreign and Community Relations, Ambassador Colin Granderson.
CARICOM thanked the Canadian Government in a statement yesterday, for its support.
Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana, Lilian Chatterjee told Kaieteur News yesterday that Canada chartered a Trans Guyana flight to pick up the various members from their home countries, Antigua, St. Vincent and Barbados.
“So we covered the cost of the flight and also their stay while they’re in Guyana for the recount,” the High Commissioner said.
When CARICOM first attempted to assist Guyana with a credible conclusion of its electoral process, Canada had welcomed the Community’s involvement. Chatterjee said that it was very unfortunate that CARICOM’s initiative was interrupted by court injunctions. As those have now been dismissed, Chatterjee registered that Canada welcomes the recount being back on track, and the participation of CARICOM.“You know, I’m not just the High Commissioner to Guyana. I’m also Ambassador to CARICOM and we believe that CARICOM has an important role to play.”
She said that CARICOM’s decision to send a mission speaks tremendously to the goodwill of its leadership, not just of Chair and Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, but of all the CARICOM leaders who are interested in seeing a credible and democratic process.
More importantly, Chatterjee said that Canada has made its position on the issue of Guyana’s electoral process very clear to President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo; that there should be a credible, transparent process.
CARICOM also iterated the need to ensure a credible and transparent recount process, in a statement yesterday, arguing that that would provide legitimacy to any government which would be sworn in as a result.
“This process must be completed without further delay,” Mottley said.
The CARICOM team consists of three members: Senior Lecturer at University of the West Indies, Cynthia Barrow-Giles; Commissioner on the Electoral Commission of Antigua and Barbuda, John Jarvis; and Elections Supervisor on the Electoral Commission of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sylvester King.
Mottley said that Barrow-Giles was a member of the High Level team which came to Guyana last March to participate in the CARICOM-supervised recount previously contemplated by GECOM, while Jarvis and King both participated in the CARICOM electoral observer mission for the General and Regional Elections held on March 2, 2020. The other members of the first High Level team are unavailable for the present mission.
The country now awaits the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to ground the national recount into a gazetted legal order, with a clear commencement date.
GECOM will be conducting a briefing with representatives of the political parties today.