News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. March 18, 2020: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that the Trump administration is closely monitoring the tabulation of votes in Guyana.
Guyanese voters went to the polls on March 2, 2020 and to date the results have been mired in controversy. A recount is now underway monitored by an independent CARICOM mission.
Pompeo said Tuesday that the US joins the OAS, CARICOM, the Commonwealth and other international organizations in calling for an accurate count.
“It is important to note that individuals who seek to benefit from electoral fraud and form illegitimate governments/regimes will be subject to serious consequences from the United States,” the US Secretary of State added.
U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, March 17, 2020 pic.twitter.com/t4bjOVoKXd
— U.S. Embassy Guyana (@EmbassyGuyana) March 17, 2020
His comments came as CARICOM on Tuesday expressed regret at the forced withdrawal of a mission to recount votes at the March 2nd general elections and said that it is clear that there are forces here who do not want the votes recounted for whatever reason.
A court order issued on Tuesday, March 17, 2020, granted an injunction restraining GECOM from recounting any ballots of the General and Regional Elections of March 2nd 2020, and set aside “any agreement between the President of Guyana and the Leader of the Opposition and or any agreement between the Guyana Elections Commission and the Caribbean Community.” It was filed by a citizen of Guyana.
The Caribbean Community said it had no other choice but to withdraw the High Level Team sent to Guyana on Saturday, March 14th to supervise the re-counting of the ballots in Region 4 of the General and Regional Elections of the elections.
“It is clear that there are forces that do not want to see the votes recounted for whatever reason. Any Government which is sworn in without a credible and fully transparent vote count process would lack legitimacy,” CARICOM Chair and PM of Barbados, Mia Mottley, said Tuesday.
General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Bharrat Jagdeo, yesterday charged that the governing A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) is “mortally” afraid of the recount of votes of Region 4 and has blamed them for the constant delaying of the process.
“…Clearly they are trying to stage something…….they will try to undermine the integrity of those boxes and the containers. They are mortally afraid of the recount. Everyone have been saying let’s do the recount and wherever the chips fall people have to accept the results,” Jagdeo said.
Meanwhile, major ports of entry to Guyana was closed a midnight for 14 days to combat COVID-19.
