The Carter Center has been locked out by the caretaker Government yet again after it requested authorization to have its observers come to watch and report on the national vote recount.
Dr David Caroll, who heads the Center’s Democracy Program, told the News Room that independent and impartial observers like the Carter Center are there to give credence to the process.
He said that the Center only had two observers it planned to send to Guyana, and though there is some amount of live streaming of the process, it would be much more preferable to have observers on the ground.
Dr Caroll has been coming to Guyana since 1991 when the Carter Center became engaged in this country and helped to chart the way towards the return of free and fair elections after two decades of elections in the post-independence period that were marked by electoral fraud.
He said Guyana became a place the Carter Center felt a bond and an attraction to after it became involved in Guyana at that critical moment for the historic October 5, 1992 elections.
He said that the Center felt it could be helpful as an organisation that has developed a reputation of being committed to democracy, human rights, transparency and the rule of law.
“…the well-being of Guyana has become something we care about,” Caroll told the News Room Friday.
He said that Guyana captured a place in the imagination and hearts of many people at the Carter Center and so it has continued to be involved in the country since 1992.
He said that international observers can help in giving a sense of confidence that the electoral process is transparent, “because we don’t have a political objective in mind.”
He said the observers only really care about attesting to quality of the process as they see it.
“Our role is to observe and report transparently what see,” he stated.
