The Organisation of American States (OAS) and Caricom are sending a joint Electoral Observation Mission to Haiti in preparation for the November 28 legislative and presidential elections.

According to a press release OAS Secretary General Albert Ramdin made this announcement during a recent meeting of the Group of Friends of Haiti.  The Mission will be integrated by more than 150 people to be deployed throughout the Caribbean nation who would be tasked with following the electoral process in the run-up to the elections as well as the voting on Election Day. “It is hoped that a core group of people will arrive in Haiti at the beginning of August,” the release said.

Ambassador Ramdin said this is the first time that the OAS and Caricom have partnered to provide electoral observation assistance, explaining that this new collaboration will allow them to be more effective. “We believe that if a country is in need of help, whether it’s political, economic or social, or whether it is in need of technical assistance, we need to work together with the subregional integration entity or cooperation entity, in this case CARICOM,” he said, adding that preparations for the elections are on schedule. “So if everything goes well in terms of technical preparation we believe we can have free, fair and credible elections,” he said.

Highlighting the importance of timely elections in Haiti, Ramdin said successful elections could speed up the reconstruction process of the country. “If we have elections at the end of the year, we may have a much better situation by February next year to intensify the process of social and economic reconstruction, and work towards sustainable development,” he said.

According to the release legislative elections in Haiti were postponed after the January 12 earthquake. Since then, the OAS has been and will continue to be involved in various aspects of the Haitian electoral process including the registration of new voters whose addresses changed after the quake; providing technical assistance to the country’s Provisional Electoral Council and providing technical expertise and equipment for the establishment of tabulation centres.