The Assistant Secretary General of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Albert Ramdin, is scheduled to arrive in Jamaica today to spearhead the regional body’s election monitoring mission.

Ambassador Ramdin will consult with political and electoral figures regarding over preparations and how they may have been affected by Hurricane Dean.

The OAS began deploying its monitors last Friday, with the arrival of the core group of electoral experts who observed security forces and Election Day workers voting on Tuesday, ahead of Election Day on Monday, September 3.

The OAS team expressed satisfaction with the overall organisation of this event and will include its observations in its final report to the OAS Permanent Council after the elections.

Assistant Chief of Mission, Steven Griner, said that the remaining OAS observers are undergoing training ahead of the election, including to sensitise them on the local electoral process.

Some 50 observers from 13 countries of the hemisphere comprise the observation mission, which will be deployed to at least 70 per cent of the 60 constituencies in the country.

The OAS were invited to monitor the polls by the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (EOJ) and have so far received funding from Canada and the United States. Other OAS Member countries will provide observers on Election Day.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 7:39 am and is filed under Election monitoring. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.