FORMER United States President Jimmy Carter and other officials from the Carter Centre observer mission delegation yesterday paid a courtesy call on Head of State, Donald Ramotar. Mr. Carter and his team met with President Ramotar at the Office of the President along with other members of the Cabinet, including Agriculture Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy and Natural Resources and the Environment Minister Robert Persaud.
According to President Ramotar, the meeting in itself was fruitful, as discussions were held on elections preparedness and other issues related to the upcoming May 11 General and Regional Elections.

“I met with (former) President Carter and his observer team to talk about election preparation and other issues relating to elections. I’m very happy to have them here, this is the team’s 100th election observation mission.”
Being the team’s 100th election observer mission, the President said, it is a historical event as he noted the former US President’s role in bringing back democracy to Guyana.
Meanwhile, among the issues of concerns raised, President Ramotar pointed out, is that some parties do not yet have a list of elections day staff.
The former US President arrived at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) on Friday.
He is co-leading the Carter Center’s Observer Mission to monitor Guyana’s electoral process, along with Dame Audrey Glover of the United Kingdom, and former Foreign Affairs Minister of Barbados, Billie Miller.
The Center had deployed a team to Guyana since April, including five experts and six medium-term observers, who were stationed at locations throughout the country.
This medium-term observation team was joined this week by more than 50 short-term observers from 24 countries.
They will be witnessing the electoral process, including voting, counting, polling, and tabulation, and will release a preliminary statement of key findings on May 13, which will be available at http://www.cartercenter.org.
This is the Carter Center’s fourth election observation mission in Guyana.(GINA)