Carter Centre likely to observe another historic Guyana election

TIMES INT'L
Former US President Jimmy Carter
Former US President Jimmy Carter

The Carter Centre appears set to observe Guyana’s General and Regional elections for the first time since 2006. If the Centre decides against mounting just a targeted or focused mission, it would be the first time that a full-fledged observer team would be dispatched to Guyana since the 2001 polls.

Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon told a news conference on Wednesday that Carter Centre representatives last week Friday (March 13, 2015) completed a needs assessment similar to one conducted by a United Nations team .

Luncheon said the Centre’s assessment appeared to signal that organisation’s interest in fielding a mission to observe the May 11, 2015 General and Regional elections expected to be keenly contested by the incumbent People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) and the opposition coalition of A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC).

Former US President Jimmy Carter led the Centre’s first Observer Mission to Guyana in 1992 when the first internationally certified free and fair election saw the PPP/C regaining office for the first time in 28 years.

While the Carter Centre had mounted full observer mission in 1992 and 2001, it merely conducted a targeted or focused observation of the 2006 elections two years after the Former American President visited Guyana for the last time in 2004.

During that visit, at the invitation of then President Bharrat Jagdeo,  Carter had expressed grave disillusion with political gridlock, absence of shared governance and lack of real representation of Guyanese.

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