Dear Editor,

It has been over 18 months since the Government in Guyana suffered a no-confidence vote, which started the long and tedious process of electing a new Government.

Readers may recall that the Government which had 33 seats in a 65-seat Parliament went to court to argue that 33 seats was not a majority after one of their members voted with the Opposition.

Elections were held on March 2, 2020 with international and regional observers invited by the Government and welcomed by all Guyanese. Since then the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has done everything possible to declare a result. They have refused to tally the statements of poll (SOPs) then objected to a recount, then agreeing to an observer mission to observe the recount, and now refusing to declare a result.

Now we hear US Congress members Hakeem Jeffries and Yvette Clarke labelling these observer missions as interfering in the elections. This flies in the face of what the missions were invited to do and what they actually did. They just observed.

Head of Organization of American States (OAS) mission Bruce Golding, head of the Commonwealth mission Owen Arthur, head of USA mission Jimmy Carter group, the European Union, the Canadian and UK representative all agreed that they observed a free and fair election but a rigged tabulation.

The Guyanese people deserve better from their own leaders. But given the nature of what is being done to the electoral process they need all the support they can get both from within the region and outside. We cannot turn a blind eye to what is being attempted with the US Congress representatives calling this support for democracy interference. We can do better.

Spare a thought for the lives that matter in Guyana.

Anand James

Kingston 6

ajames@cffjamaica.com