GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — A Three-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) team that monitored the recount of the ballots cast in the disputed March 2 regional and general elections in Guyana, says it did not “witness anything which would render the recount, and by extension, the casting of the ballots…to have thwarted the will of the people”.

In its 152-page report, a copy of which has been obtained by the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), the CARICOM team headed by Cynthia Barrow-Giles, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies (UWI), and including  John Jarvis, Commissioner of the Antigua and Barbuda Electoral Commission and Sylvester King, Deputy Supervisor of Elections of St Vincent and the Grenadines, noted that the “actual recount of the vote was indeed transparent”.

In its report, the three-member team noted the problems encountered in the lead-up to the recount but praised the GECOM workers “who labored long hours over the course of thirty-three days to bring the disputed election results to a near end, for this was just one of the four stages outlined of the Gazetted Order on the national recount”.

“Specifically, 7.2 percent of the votes cast were impacted by anomalies, 39.2 percent were impacted by voter impersonation, 3.4 percent impacted by both anomalies/irregularities and voter impersonation, and 5.7 percent impacted by unreconciled ballot boxes,” said Lowenfield, whose report, like the CARICOM’s document will be discussed by GECOM before an official announcement of the election results is given.

Overall, while we acknowledge that there were some defects in the recount of the March 2, 2020 votes cast for the General and Regional Elections on Guyana, the Team did not witness anything which would render the recount, and by extension, the casting of the ballot on March 2, so grievously deficient procedurally or technically…or sufficiently deficient to have thwarted the will of the people and consequently preventing the election results and its declarations by GECOM from reflecting the will of the voters,” the document stated.