The Organization of American States has today, 15th of April, 2020, released a statement that the 156 days recount proposal submitted by GECOM’s elections officer, Keith Lowenfield, for the March 2020 elections in Guyana, South America is “unheard of” and “unacceptable.”
The proposal by the Chief Elections Officer that would have required five months to recount less than 500,000 ballots is unheard of in any democracy and would be unacceptable under any circumstances. The Mission notes that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has ordered that a revised timetable be prepared.
The statement further reads that “there is an abundance of evidence” that the tabulation of Region 4 votes was not done in a transparent and credible manner and this has led to a case for a national recount.
In the statement, the OAS has requested that all party agents and accredited observers to allowed to see each ballot as it is being counted.
Further, the OAS Mission, in the statement, has requested that GECOM staff who had exhibited partisan behavior in the original count be excluded from the recount.
Read Full Statement: Statement of the OAS Electoral Observation Mission to the March 2 General and Regional Elections in Guyana.
Related: The OAS and What it Spells for Guyana.
