The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) appears comfortable with the preparations of the Guyana Elections Commission for Monday’s Elections and has also been assured of the readiness of the security forces.
CARICOM has officially launched a 17-member Elections observer mission, which is being led by retired Justice of the Eastern Caribbean, Cynthia Connie-Martyr of St. Lucia.
She said the CARICOM team is in Guyana to observe the elections and that is what it will do.
“The role of the Caricom elections observer mission is to observe the election process and to collect quantitative and qualitative information and observations of the voting process and the results, observe and assess the outcome of the elections and it’s initial impact on the social and political environment and the preparation of a final report on the elections”
The CARICOM team has already been meeting with stakeholders and civil society organisations including the Guyana Trades Union Congress, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union, the Private Sector Commission and the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination.
The CARICOM team also met with Police Commissioner Leslie James who assured the Observer Group that the Police Force is ready for the polls and any other issue related to the elections.
“The Commissioner convinces us that the Force is prepared to deal with any incidence of violence and any security issues that may occur during the election season, both before, during and after the elections. He also indicated that they will not be wearing arms, no guns because he thought that that was not necessary. In addition he indicated that it is unlikely that there will be any violence. He felt that the whole process will be free, free of violence and so he said that in any event he would be prepared if there were incidents of violence he would be prepared to address those incidences”, the CARICOM Mission head said.
The CARICOM Observer team has also met with representatives of the parties contesting the elections and has listened to their concerns.
The mission includes senior electoral officials from Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
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