WPA calls for CARICOM-supervised vote recount as basis for power sharing, constitutional reform

Last Updated on Sunday, 22 March 2020, 8:25 by Writer

The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) Saturday night called for a Caribbean Community (CARICOM)-supervised national recount of votes if it is constitutional, but said the winner should set the groundwork for power-sharing within a set timeframe.

“We reiterate our demand that following the examination of the ballot boxes which reveal the credibility of the elections, whichever party wins the most votes forms a government of national unity for an agreed period with a clear mandate to complete constitutional reform and ending the “winner-takes-all” governance system,” said the WPA, one of the coalition partners of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).

The WPA said ending the winner-takes-all governance system is the only way out of our historical entrapment, which hinders economic and social progress as well as racial unity.

APNU candidate, Ulita Moore, who is being represented by fellow candidate, Attorney-at-Law, Roysdale Forde, is seeking a legal review of a recount and the legality of a bipartisan agreement between President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo to ask for a recount of the votes cast in the March 2, 2020 elections.

The WPA explained that it welcomes CARICOM’s supervision of a national recount but only in chronological order from regions one to ten. The CARICOM mission that had come here to oversee the recount had favoured starting from Region Four which has the single largest number of voters.

The WPA said it would call on all political parties to accept the results of a recount noting that the recount must be initiated by GECOM based on the law and based on rules that must be laid down by the local electoral management agency.

” WPA wants to also make it pellucidly clear that it does not oppose CARICOM’s observation of a possible recount, but such observation must be subject to parameters that are clearly set out by GECOM. WPA reiterates that the authority of GECOM should not be usurped by any other formal or informal agency,” that party said.

The political party, once a bitter archrival of the People’s National Congress (PNC) back in the 1970s and 1980s, cited the need for national reconciliation and ending voter manipulation.

According to the WPA, it respects the rights of Guyanese to seek redress in the court on any related electoral issue.

In clear reference to veiled threats by the United States (US), Britain, Canada, and the European Union as well as the Organisation of American States if Guyana’s general elections are not free, fair and transparent, the WPA denounced calls for sanctions to be imposed on Guyana. “These will hurt mostly those who are already hurting from poverty and powerlessness,” the WPA said less than one week after the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) said it would endorse US Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo’s hint at sanctions.

The WPA says it rejects violence in all its forms and especially as has occurred since election day politically-directed against children, women and law enforcement personnel. Several school children, who were travelling in a ‘David G’ bus at the time, were injured when protesters stoned the vehicles and shattered their windshields.

Two policemen, whose ammunition were expended, were chopped by a protester when they sought refuge in a yard. The protester was moments later shot dead.