OAS happy with poll procedures

Albert Ramdin, Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) who had the task of heading a five-member OAS Observer Team to monitor the General Elections here, shared his views on the electoral process last Wednesday just one hour before polls closed.

Ramdin said he was satisfied with what he had seen and did not think there was a systematic problem with the conduct of the General Elections. {{more}}

“Generally from what I see, I think the people involved, both the voters as well as the officials, including the police, including the party agents have performed their duties to satisfaction,” Ramdin stated.

“The procedures followed in the voting stations are good, slight differences between polling officers in terms of their conduct but in general the rules are complied with. We generally are very happy with that,” said Ramdin.

At that point Ramdin said his team had visited 20 polling stations. He said regretfully, as a result of technical reasons, his team was unable to monitor the process in the Grenadines, as the flights to get there were fully booked. He however, highlighted the fact that the National Monitoring and Consultative Mechanism (NMCM) was present in the Grenadines and was in touch with his team.

Ramdin expressed the wish that the politicians would honour the outcome of the elections.

He said to his knowledge there were no major concerns.

He said despite the inclement weather that was affecting the country voters came out in numbers and Vincentians should be congratulated for that. He noted that this demonstrated that Vincentians are very aware of their right to vote.