British Minister Lord Tariq Ahmad endorses call for declaration of recount results

Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon, the British Minister for the Commonwealth and the United Nations, has endorsed calls for there to be a declaration of the results of the national vote count in Guyana.

“As fellow members of the Commonwealth, we urge Guyana to uphold its fundamental values of democracy, the rule of law and good governance,” Lord Tariq said on Twitter.

Lord Tariq was appointed Minister of State for the Commonwealth and the United Nations on June 13, 2017.

He was at the time endorsing the call of Baroness Elizabeth Grace Sugg, the UK’s Minister for Sustainable Development and Overseas Territories.

Baroness Sugg on Saturday said Guyanese “have waited long enough for election results.”

Now that all legal processes have been completed, she urged the Guyana Elections Commission to declare a result based on CARICOM scrutinised recount.

“Every vote must count, all must respect those votes, regardless of the result,” she tweeted.

On Monday Justice (rt’d) Claudette Singh, the Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) took a crucial decision to set aside the declarations made before the national vote recount started; it means that the only figures that can be used for a declaration of the results of the elections are those generated during the recount.

The combined totals from the recount, as presented by Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield in a report to the Commission on June 13, show the PPP winning the elections with 233, 336 votes.

APNU+AFC secured 217,920 votes. Together the other parties secured 9,096 votes.

It means that the Coalition APNU+AFC lost the elections by 24, 512 votes.

Lowenfield has been given until 2:30 p.m Tuesday to present his elections report, calculating the Parliamentary seats assigned to the winning parties, so there could be a declaration of the results of the elections.

Those results show the PPP secured 33 seats, APNU+AFC secured 31 seats and a group of three parties secured one seat to complete the 65-seat National Assembly.