THE CARICOM Elections Observation Mission for this Sunday’s Presidential and Parliamentary elections in Haiti has been engaged in various activities since its arrival, including meetings with the Haitian Prime Minister and other State officials.The mission issued a Preliminary Statement on Friday, as the 5.8 million registered voters prepare to choose from among 53 Presidential candidates and also vote in the second round of the Legislative elections for seats in the Lower House and Senate in Haiti’s 119 constituencies.
Pursuant to the request/invitation of the Government of Haiti for CARICOM to deploy an Observer Mission to monitor the 2015 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections, a team of 10 persons from the CARICOM Member States of Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago assembled in Port au Prince, five days prior to the 25th October Election Day.
The team, headed by Dr Steve Surujbally, Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, comprises experienced practitioners of elections management in their respective countries, with tested and proven expertise in Elections Observation Missions. The team includes two members of staff of the CARICOM Secretariat.
From the outset, the team discussed the role and functions of the group, as well as the important foci relative to the performances and behaviour at and around the polling stations to be visited, and other critical elements pertaining to the electoral process.
Meetings are being held with the Haitian Prime Minister, the Head of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) of Haiti, the Minister responsible for Electoral Affairs, the National Council for Election Observation (CNO), the Haitian Council of Non-State Organisations and other Observer Groups (the latter under the auspices of the European Union).
It may be worth noting that, in spite of requests to meet with leaders of the major political parties, it was claimed that current campaigning efforts precluded their meetings with observer groups – including the CARICOM team. This stance is neither surprising nor unique, since it is the experience of many Observer Missions monitoring elections, intra- and extra-regional.
The CARICOM Election Observation Mission has every intention of visiting political rallies, while fine-tuning its methodologies for deploying team members to cover the maximum number of polling stations on Election Day. This latter activity includes precursor visits to the polling stations which the teams intend to monitor.
On Election Day, the team intends to focus on those polling station procedures which represent meaningful tiles in the total mosaic of efficient electoral systems and practices.