Regional leaders arrive amidst political deadlock
Members of the Guyana Defense Force arrives at the Eugene F. Correia International Airport to provide backup security escort for the visiting delegation
Leaders from five Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries have arrived in Guyana for a two-day mission for what is believed to be the brokering of a deal aimed at resolving Guyana’s political situation.
Those leaders include CARICOM Chairperson and Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley; Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit; Ralph Gonsalves, PM of St Vincent and the Grenadines; and PM of Grenada, Dr. Keith Mitchell.
The delegation will be lead by PM Mottley who conferred with Guyana’s second-highest national award – The Order of Roraima. The delegation will meet with all of the 11 political parties that contested the elections, and the international observer missions here.
According to CARICOM, the visit by the leaders is part of its efforts to “ease tension” in the country, and assist in arriving at a resolution to the current political impasses which resulted from the March 2 General and Regional Elections.
The political deadlock was arrived at after the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) discontinued the verification and tabulation of votes in Region 4 – Guyana’s largest electoral district, and proceeded to declare the APNU+AFC coalition as the victors.
The main opposition party – the PPP – is contending that they won the elections and that verification of the votes would reveal same.
This discontinuation of the verification exercise immediately sparked outrage from several opposition parties, and local and international observer groups, all of whom have condemned the move and called for a resumption of the process.
Several foreign powers, including the US, UK, France, and Norway, have supported the observes in its call for the verification exercise to continue. The matter is being challenged in the High Court.
Several of those foreign powers have issued strong warnings that any attempt to swear in a President without the verification process being completed with render those acts unconstitutional and illegal; thereby allow for sanctions to be applied.
