“We are not here to interfere, but to observe.”
That’s the statement made by the Chief of the CARICOM Election Observers, Ian Hughes, after meeting with members of the local media fraternity on Thursday.
He said the Observers are estimating to visit between 25 and 30 percent of Polling Stations in the country on April 28th.
“We are not here to superimpose our practices into your process, but we observe and we make note of those, and then we put them into our report.”
Six teams – five in Trinidad and one in Tobago – will monitor the process.
Mr. Hughes said the teams will be closely monitoring the electoral process, from the conduct of agents aligned to the various political parties to issues of people without their ballot papers or IDs, and whether voters have stained their index fingers.
He said the Mission will flag anything that looks suspicious.
“Because if we observe that there’s something really drastically wrong within a particular polling station, there’s nothing that prevents us from picking up the phone.”
He added that the Mission intends to survey at least 25 to 30% of the over 3,000 Polling Stations on the day, especially the marginal constituencies.
“And we have heard that there are some areas that are considered safe seats. It does not mean that we will not visit those areas.”
Speaking on past Parliamentary Elections in T&T, Mr. Hughes pointed out that they always appear to be ‘free and fair.’
“We do not anticipate or expect to see any sort of violence or any sort of issues which will cause any challenges to us moving around, especially freely to observe or to do our work.”
Regarding their prior engagements with political parties and civil society groups, he said the group has been assured of their safety during the electoral process.
“And we have been assured, especially from the police, that we will be safe. And mind you, we feel safe. Since we landed here, we have felt comfortable. But I think one of the things that the parties are saying, just as you have been saying to us, is visit the marginal constituencies.”
The CARICOM Observation Mission also intends to visit the political rallies of the two major political parties on Saturday.
“And further, we will meet with the Transparency Institute, Equal Opportunity Commission. We will also get an opportunity, hopefully, to go to the main rallies that will be held on Saturday for both parties.”
Mr. Hughes reiterated the independence of the CARICOM Observation Mission, noting that it is fully funded by the Secretariat.
As for the preliminary report, he said it would be presented on the day after elections, while the final report would be due within a month.