Caricom team to observe Jamaica’s election

Jamaica to vote on Thursday

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is mounting a CARICOM Electoral Observer Mission to monitor the general elections in Jamaica on Thursday.

The Mission is being headed by Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer of the Elections and Boundaries Department in Belize.

The other members of the Mission comprise experts in electoral management and administration from Barbados, The Bahamas, Dominica, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis,St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Members of the Mission and the CARICOM Secretariat Support Staff who started arriving in Jamaica on the weekend will depart by February 27.

While in Jamaica, the CARICOM Electoral Observer Mission 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,” CARICOM said in a release.

The Observer Mission will issue a preliminary statement based on its observations and findings.

A Report of the General Elections will be subsequently prepared and submitted to the CARICOM Secretary General.

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.

Jamaica police and military personnel went to the polls yesterday, three days before the rest of the electorate.

The voting took place at 195 polling locations that were established in schools, churches, police stations, military bases and court houses across the island.

According to Director of Elections Orrette Fisher, the names of all those eligible to vote on Monday were extracted from the official voters list and dispersed to the designated polling locations.

Ahead of Thursday’s general election, the EOJ has sought to assure workers in the western parish of St. James that all systems will be in place to enable them to safely carry out their duties.