OAS monitors coming for general elections

The Organization of American States (OAS) will deploy a team of election observers to St. Vincent and the Grenadines to observe the Caribbean nation’s December 7 General Elections. Assistant Secretary General Albert R. Ramdin will be the chief of the observation mission.{{more}}

Secretary General José Miguel Insulza and St. Vincent and the Grenadines Permanent Representative, Ambassador Ellsworth John, on Thursday November 10 signed agreements formalizing the arrangements, during a ceremony at OAS headquarters. One of the agreements, between the OAS and the Electoral Office of St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Ministry of National Security and the Public Service, gives the electoral observation mission access to the electoral machinery, while the other relates to the privileges and immunities that will be given the OAS monitors while they are covering the general election process.

“Both major political parties in St. Vincent and the Grenadines consider it a very important function for the OAS to be present at our elections as observers,” Ambassador John stated, after signing the agreements. Speaking on behalf of the government and the elections authorities, the ambassador pledged cooperation with the observer mission “in every way possible,” and said Ambassador Ramdin and the team of observers would be welcomed warmly in his country.

John expressed the hope that the upcoming elections will be given “a clean bill of health in terms of the efficiency” of the process.

For his part, Secretary General Insulza stressed how the OAS values the exercise to the extent that, “We have decided that the Assistant Secretary General himself will lead delegation to the observation of the elections.”

Insulza went on to note the significance of the confidence invested in the hemispheric organization through the invitation to observe the elections.