The Caribbean Community (Caricom) is mounting an electoral observer mission to monitor the general elections to be held in Jamaica on Thursday.
According to a Caricom press release, the mission, headed by Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer, Elections and Boundaries Department, Belize, will meet with Jamaican electoral officials, leaders of political parties and other stakeholders. On the day of the elections, the mission will monitor the electoral process including the opening of the poll, the voting process, the closing of the poll and the counting of the ballots.
Other members of the mission include experts in electoral management and administration from Barbados, the Bahamas, Dominica, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Members of the mission and the Caricom Secretariat support staff were scheduled to begin arriving in Jamaica on Sunday last and will depart by February 27.
The mission will issue a preliminary statement based on its observations and findings and a report of the general elections will subsequently be prepared and submitted to the Caricom Secretary General, the release said.
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.
