Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations, Baroness Patricia Scotland, in a social media post today lauded Guyanese leaders from both the government and Opposition sides for committing to abiding by the results of the national recount.
“I thank the Government & Opposition leaders for committing themselves to respect & adhere to the recount results,” she said in a tweet.
Baroness Scotland also noted that the Commonwealth Secretariat continues to “pay close attention to the electoral process in #Guyana & commends the people of [Guyana] for their patience during the recount process.”
Only Saturday, Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Presidential Candidate, Irfaan Ali, reiterated his party’s commitment to adhering to the results of the recount.
“I want to assure Guyanese that as we close up on this recount, the PPP has been consistent in saying that we will honour the results of a credible recount,” Ali posited.
His comment comes on the heels of mounting international pressure for Guyanese leaders, particularly the incumbent APNU/AFC, to accept the results emanating from the recount exercise.
The Coalition last week had said that the recount is not credible because of “high incidence of fraud” and called for the March 2 elections to be voided.
However, many stakeholders have been reminding the caretaker administration of it’s commitment to the recount process and to accept its results.
As such, incumbent President David Granger during an address to the nation on Saturday committed to abide by the declaration of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), which he reaffirmed is an independent body.
“I am committed to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law. I respect the integrity and autonomous nature of the Elections Commission. I will abide by the declarations of the Elections Commission as I have abided by the rulings of the court,” the caretaker President stated.
GECOM is expected to complete counting the remaining 74 ballot boxes today and will have until June 13 to tabulate the figures from all 2339 boxes. The Elections Commission is slated to finally make a declaration of the elections results on June 16 – more than three months after polling day.
Already the recount has shown the Opposition PPP/C in a landslide lead over the incumbent APNU/AFC Coalition.
