CASTRIES, St Lucia, CMC – St Lucia’s prime minister Dr. Kenny Anthony says that while he supports calls for an election observer team to oversee general elections in Guyana he does not think there is a need to establish a permanent election observer team within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
The Prime Minister was speaking on Tuesday against the backdrop of an invitation by Guyana for a Regional Observer Team to monitor elections there. General and regional elections will be held in Guyana on August 28.
He said setting up such a team would create another bureaucratic arm of CARICOM that would only be called into service in a few instances.
Dr. Anthony said that while it was generally true that CARICOM states did not have a history of fraudulent general elections, in the case of Guyana, the elections had brought about a “very charged atmosphere”.
“So, I think it’s a good thing for CARICOM to have a presence, notwithstanding the presence of the Secretariat in Guyana, because the job of the Secretariat is not to provide an independent assessment,” he observed.
Dr. Anthony said St. Lucia has also invited elections observers for the island’s next general election set to take place before year-end.
“I have leadership responsibility in CARICOM for governance and justice and I want to be sure that St. Lucians truly believe in their hearts that the electoral process is fair, free and beyond reproach,” he said.