Jagdeo commends President for inviting CARICOM to oversee Reg. 4 recount

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo on Saturday commended the move by President David Granger to invite a team from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to oversee the recount of ballots cast in Region Four at the March 2 general and regional elections.

“I just thought I’d thank CARICOM, thank all those who worked on this, and also all the other observers and commend the President for taking this step forward that would allow us to bring an end to this – satisfactory to all political parties,” Jagdeo said at an impromptu press conference at Freedom House on Saturday.

Chairperson of CARICOM Mia Mottley has announced that President Granger made a request for the Caribbean Community to field an independent high-level team to supervise the re-counting of the ballots in Region 4 and this was agreed to by Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo.

The PPP/C and several other parties which contested the March 2 polls have submitted letters to one of the Deputy Returning Officers (DRO) in Region Four for a recount. The PPP/C has not yet received a response from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) but Jagdeo urged that all stakeholders including the elections body respect the agreement brokered by the two leaders.

Jagdeo at his press conference urged all including GECOM to respect this agreement.

“We have to find ways of working together, the political parties, long into the future. Now the key thing is to ensure the rightful results are announced, that people don’t feel cheated, they know that there is a process that is overseen by CARICOM and everyone else that yield the actual results,” he added.

The Opposition Leader said it is heartening that both sides have agreed to chart a way forward which will be acceptable to both sides.

He said his party is not mindful of who wins the elections as long as the process is transparent.

“Whoever the winner is, the winner will be declared based on a verification process which is the recount in the boxes and then our country can move forward…,” Jagdeo said.

The ballots are secured by the seal of each political parties and Jagdeo hopes nothing has been done to compromise the credibility of the ballots.

The Opposition Leader alluded to threats of sanctions as he called for a transparent process.