Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Commissioner Sase Gunraj is leading a four-member Observation Mission from the Caribbean Community (Caricom) to monitor the St Kitts and Nevis General Elections set for today.
GECOM Commissioner Sase Gunraj leading the Caricom EOM in SKN
The other members of the Caricom Election Observation Mission (CEOM) are Corey Carlisle Greenidge from Barbados; Cecil Ferdinand Valies from Suriname and Roslyn Khan Cummings from Trinidad and Tobago. The team is being supported by Jhonson Alexandre and Alan Donawa of the Caricom Secretariat.
Caricom was invited by the St Kitts and Nevis Government to mount an Election Observation Mission to observe its August 5, 2022 General Election.
According to a statement from the Mission, its role is to observe the electoral process in St Kitts and Nevis, and collect qualitative and quantitative information regarding the voting process and the results to facilitate the preparation of a final report on the General Election.
The team has already met virtually with the Governor General, the Commissioner of Police and a team from St Kitts and Nevis Labour Party (SKLP) led by the Leader of the Opposition, Dr Denzil Douglas, prior to their arrival in Basseterre on Wednesday evening.
Ahead of today’s election, they were scheduled to meet with incumbent Prime Minister, Timothy Harris, as well as the Supervisor of Elections and representatives of other contesting political parties. The team will also expect to engage other key stakeholders and representatives of civil society groups; and attend rallies – all in an effort to obtain an overview of the general atmosphere and level of preparedness for the electoral process.
The CEOM observed the pre-election period and on Election Day, today, would continue monitoring activities in as many of the constituencies as possible including the opening, conduct, and closing of the polls through to the tabulation and announcement of the results.
A Preliminary Statement will be issued on the Mission’s initial assessment of the electoral process after polling day, and the Final Report on the election will be subsequently presented to Caricom Secretary General, Dr Carla Barnett.
This is the second EOM in which Gunraj, a Government-nominated Commissioner at GECOM, is participating.
Back in June, Gunraj was part of a nine-member Caricom Mission mounted to observe the General Election held in Grenada on June 23, 2022. Representing Guyana, he joined election experts from several other CARICOM territories including Barbados’s Corey Greenidge and Suriname’s Cecil Valies. (G8)
