CARICOM observer group to arrive this weekend
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will mount a CARICOM Electoral Observation Mission to monitor the general elections to be held in St Vincent and the Grenadines on Wednesday, December 9, 2015.{{more}}
The chief of mission is Mr Gasper Jn Baptiste, chief elections officer in St Lucia. The other members of the mission come from Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados and Jamaica. They will be accompanied by a two-member CARICOM Secretariat support team.
The Core Group, which includes the Chief of Mission and the CARICOM Secretariat support staff, will arrive in St Vincent and the Grenadines on December 4 to 5, while the remaining members of the mission will arrive on December 6 and depart on December 10. The Core Group will leave on December 11.
The CARICOM Electoral Observer Mission will meet with electoral officials, leaders of political parties and other stakeholders. On the day of the elections, the mission will monitor the electoral process, the closing of the poll and the counting of the ballots.
For CARICOM, election observation serves as a platform to support existing democratic traditions within the Caribbean Community, as part of its wider policy of supporting democracy.