Port of Spain, Trinidad — The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will send a CARICOM electoral observer mission to monitor the general elections to be held in Trinidad and Tobago on Monday, September 7, 2015.
The chief of mission is Orrette Fisher, director of elections, Electoral Commission of Jamaica. He will be assisted by the deputy chief of mission, Josephine Tamai, chief elections officer, Department of Elections and Boundaries of Belize. The other members of the mission include experts in electoral management and administration from Barbados, The Bahamas, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname. They will be accompanied by a two-member CARICOM Secretariat support team.
The chief of mission arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday and the remaining members were due to arrive on Thursday. The mission departs the twin-island Republic on September 9, 2015.
The CARICOM electoral observer mission will meet with the Trinidad and Tobago electoral officials, leaders of political parties and other stakeholders. On the day of the elections, the mission will monitor the electoral process, including the opening of the poll, the voting process, the closing of the poll and the counting of the ballots.
For CARICOM, election observation serves as a platform to support existing democratic traditions within the Caribbean Community as part of its wider policy of supporting democracy.