Caricom Observer Mission all set for today’s polls

The Caribbean Community (Caricom) 17-member Elections Observer Mission (EOM) on Sunday held a final planning session before spreading out to various parts of the country to oversee today’s polling day process.

The observers will monitor and observe Election Day activities, including the opening of Polling Places, the voting procedure and the count. They will assemble at the end of Election Day activities for a de-briefing session after which the Chief of Mission, Cynthia Combie-Martyr, will issue a Preliminary Statement.
Since the Mission’s arrival in Guyana, it has been engaging the key stakeholders in the elections, including the leaders of political parties, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and representatives of the Private Sector and civil society organisations.
During a press conference on Friday, the Head of the Caricom EOM said she was assured by Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, that all systems will be in place for elections day.
Nevertheless, Combie-Martyr, who is the Chair of the Saint Lucia Electoral Commission, said while she empathises with GECOM given the circumstances in which it had to prepare for elections, that is, following the ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) which upheld the passage of the No-Confidence Motion against the coalition Government, she is satisfied with the agency’s preparedness for today’s polling day.
“One can never expect that any electoral body could be one hundred per cent ready. There will always [be] little glitches here and there and there will always be little issues that arise that you did not expect… [The stakeholders] are relatively satisfied that GECOM has done its best to prepare for this General Elections, and I am satisfied that as a Caricom Member, Guyana, through GECOM, will be ready for that General Elections on Monday,” the Caricom Mission Head posited.
The Caricom EOM will be on the ground until March 4, observing the pre-elections and post-elections period as well as Elections Day activities across Guyana.
Included in the 17-member team, which comprises of electoral experts from other countries in the region, are three officials from the Caricom Secretariat.
These include St Lucian, Gaspar Jn Baptiste; Surinamese, Renuka Raghoe; Jamaican, Glendon Ricardo Bennett; Haitian, Yves-Marie Edouard; Bahamian, Philip Anthony Turner; Lionel Sydney Osborne of St Kitts and Nevis; Sylvester Anthony King of St Vincent and the Grenadines; Trinidadians, Fern Narcis-Scope and Dr Noel Kalicharan; Barbadians, Lesa Collins and Leonard Walters; and Carolyn Thomas-Parker and Commissioner Leonard Walters of Antigua and Barbuda.
They are tasked with observing the electoral process, collecting quantitative and qualitative information and observing the voting process and the results, observing and assessing the outcome of the elections and its initial impact on the social and political environment.
In addition to a preliminary report, the team will also be preparing a more detailed final report of its findings and recommendations for future electoral processes upon its departure.