The outgoing chair of CARICOM, Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley yesterday firmly stood by her position in relation to Guyana’s protracted elections, saying to her detractors here that “The truth hurts”.

“It is to be expected that CARICOM leaders would refrain from any actions or utterances that could undermine the legitimacy of the process and it credible conclusion,” Harmon said, while reminding that the 73-year-old Gonsalves who has led his country for 19 years is currently embroiled in an Election Petition.

“Leaders of CARICOM as a class would rather free and fair elections [and] if the government does not want to accept the results and still wants to stay in office then CARICOM will have to decide whether to suspend Guyana,” the former PM stated.

All of these came two months after the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Dr Keith Rowley refused to allow his country’s Chief Election Officer to be a part of the CARICOM scrutineer team for the national recount, saying that the country would prefer to retain its “pristine” reputation in such matters.

They travelled to Guyana (in spite of the pandemic and the risk to themselves) and they scrutinised the recount process,” she noted, before adding that the Team was of the unshakeable belief that the people of Guyana expressed their will at the ballot box on March 2 and that the results of the recount certified as valid by the staff of GECOM led to an orderly conclusion on which the declaration of the results of the election would be made.