100 countries demand recount figures to be declared

One hundred countries are now represented in calls from governments and multilateral organizations for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to declare the results of the recount, and put an end to the contentious and protracted saga that is Guyana’s 2020 general and regional elections. These countries are those which have historically espoused democratic values, and account for about half of the global population.

The national recount was necessary because of two failed attempts to rig the elections through a fraudulent alteration of the Region Four results by Returning Officer (RO), Clairmont Mingo. It did not come without challenges, as the CARICOM Scrutineer Team which was given an elevated role in the observation of this recount, had its members treated to a campaign of misinformation to discredit the Election Day process. Despite the continuous onslaught of that campaign from the APNU+AFC coalition over the 33 days of the process, the CARICOM Team was not fooled. It rejected the public effort to discredit the polls, found the results of the recount “completely acceptable” and posited that those results should form the basis of a final declaration.

The APNU+AFC coalition nevertheless supported multiple attempts by Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith

Lowenfield to unlawfully usurp the exclusive authority of the High Court to determine the validity of the elections, and unilaterally disenfranchise thousands of voters. Even when the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruled that Lowenfield could not do such a thing, the coalition resorted to a different argument against the declaration of the recount results, and endorsed instead, the use of Mingo’s fraudulent numbers as part of the basis on which a final declaration is made. In spite of the foregoing, the statements of the international community have held one collective thrust: ‘Declare the results of the recount now’. ( Kaiteur News )