IAC calls on Carter Center to support forensic audit of elections

The Indian Arrival Committee (IAC) has called upon the Carter Center and the diplomatic community to support an immediate, independent, international forensic audit of the May 11 national elections.

According to a press release, the IAC made this request to a Carter Center representative at a meeting held on Monday at the center’s Quamina Street office. The IAC team told Representative Jason Calder that there is need for a sustained presence in Guyana to support national stakeholders in addressing many of the underlying factors affecting social cohesion and breeding mistrust among the various ethnic groups.

The group also said while it is always prepared to work with the government of the day, it fully supports an election petition to the courts by the PPP/C as it is within the constitutional rights of any persons or group interested in furthering democracy in Guyana.

As such, it has called on the Carter Center and “now calls upon the entire Diplomatic Community resident in Guyana to support a request by the IAC to encourage both main political groups to allow an immediate, impartial and independent international forensic audit of the 11 May 2015 general and regional elections.” The group submits that “this step can help reduce the intense suspicions and create an atmosphere within which citizens can work to address major issues of insecurity affecting our society.”

The IAC further urged the Carter Center to use its presence to ensure that the Ethnic Relations Commission is convened and fully operational.

The group is pleased that the Carter Center has recognised that it is the first cultural organization to set up a hotline for persons, especially those of Indo-Guyanese origin, who have been victimized, verbally threatened, physically abused and have suffered damage to their property in the aftermath of the May 11 elections.