Luis Almagro, the Secretary General of the Organisation of American States (OAS), has requested a meeting of its Permanent Council to address the situation of the electoral process in Guyana.
Almagro made the announcement via twitter on Monday, sharing a copy of the letter he dispatched to the Chair of the Permanent Council, Luis Montoya.
The letter reads: “I have to honor of addressing Your Excellency to request your support in calling a meeting of the Permanent Council to deal with the situation of the electoral process in Guyana.”
The Permanent Council is one of the two main political bodies of the OAS, the other being the General Assembly. The Permanent Council keeps vigilance over the maintenance of friendly relations among the member states and, for that purpose, effectively assists them in the peaceful settlement of their disputes.
The OAS, in its latest statement on the situation in Guyana, had made it clear that “the only democratic solution for Guyana at this time is respect for the results of the national recount. No other figures – neither those prepared prior to the recount, nor those recently invalidated by the Caribbean Court of Justice, nor any others that may be unilaterally devised by the Chief Elections Officer – can have any place in the final determination of results. A new electoral process is also an unacceptable solution.”
The OAS had also reminded that “the peoples of the Americas have a right to democracy and their governments have an obligation to promote and defend it.”