CARICOM To Monitor General Elections In St. Kitts-Nevis

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, June 4, 2020 (CMC) – The Caribbean Community (CARICOM), at the invitation of the government of St. Kitts-Nevis, has fielded a CARICOM Election Observation Mission, to monitor tomorrow’s general election.

According to CARICOM, the three-member Mission will be headed by Gasper Jean Baptiste, Chief Elections Officer of St. Lucia, who has served as a member of CARICOM Election Observation Missions to other CARICOM Member States.

The other two members, Arley Gill and Chester Arlington Humphrey, are both from Grenada.

“The CARICOM Election Observation Mission proposes to meet with the electoral officials, leaders of political parties and other stakeholders of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, and will monitor the voting process, including the opening of the poll, the casting of votes, the closing of the poll and the counting of the ballots,” CARICOM said, in a statement.

The members of the Observation Mission arrived in St. Kitts and Nevis, yesterday, and will depart on Sunday.

The Election Observation Mission will issue a Preliminary Statement, based on its observations and findings.

A report, on the General Elections, will be subsequently prepared and submitted to the Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community.

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 and good governance. 

The CARICOM Secretariat said that, in this regard, at the request of the government of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, virtual training in election observation for a group of local election observers was conducted.