GECOM Chairman to head election observer mission to Haiti

Last Updated on Thursday, 22 October 2015, 19:03 by GxMedia

The Chairman of Guyana’s Elections Commission, Dr. Steve Surujbally is to head a Caribbean Community (Caricom) mission to observe Haiti’s upcoming elections, the regional headquarters announced Thursday.

The mission will observe the first round of the Presidential Elections and the second round of the Legislative Elections which will take place on 25 October 2015.

The Caricom Headquarters says the fielding of this Mission comes at the request of the Government of Haiti and follows the presence of CARICOM Election Observation Missions in St. Kitts and Nevis, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

Fifty-three Presidential candidates will be vying for the support of the 5.8 million registered voters. The second round of the Legislative elections will be a run-off for seats for the Lower House and the Senate in Haiti’s 119 constituencies.  The first round on 9 August 2015 saw some 2000 candidates from over 100 political parties vying for these seats.

The CARICOM Election Observation Mission will comprise eleven members, including election officials from CARICOM Member States and experienced election observers, along with two representatives of the CARICOM Secretariat who will also provide administrative and logistical support.

The team was scheduled to being arriving in Haiti on 21 October and will depart on the 27 and 28 October. 

In view of the vote counting process which requires sending the tally sheets from all the constituencies to a Tabulation Centre in Port-au-Prince, the results of the elections will not be available immediately.