There was nothing emanating from the recount activity that thwarted the will of the people who cast their ballots at the 2020 General and Regional Elections, according to a high-level delegation from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
The three-member team from regional bloc which was on the ground to observe the recount exercise has finally submitted its report to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), one day before the entity is expected to make a declaration on the results of the 2020 Elections which were held more than three months ago.
In the report, the CARICOM team noted that the recount was transparent and that nothing emanating from the process thwarted the will of the people.
“Overall, while we acknowledge that there were some defects, in the recount of the March 02, 2020 votes cast for the General and Regional Elections in Guyana, the team did not witness anything which would render the recount and by extension the casting of the ballot on March 02, so grievously deficient procedurally or technically, (despite some irregularities), or sufficiently deficient to have thwarted the will of the people and consequently preventing the election results and its declaration by GECOM from reflecting the will of the voters. The actual count of the vote was indeed transparent,” the report stated.
The team admitted that some irregularities were noted however, they none of the shortcomings are “sufficient nor substantial cause, to call the 2020 results into question.”
In fact, the CARICOM team remarked that the recount exercise evolved into something completely different, an audit.
“…it was conceived as an audit notwithstanding the statements on a national recount. A recount of votes means exactly that, a counting of the ballots cast. In this case, the so-called recount extended to issues normally reserved for an audit of ballots cast in an election,” the report documented.
