OAS DEPUTY CHIEF HEADS TEAM OF MONITORS TO GRENADA ELECTIONS

 

January 12, 1999

Ambassador Christopher R. Thomas, the Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), will head up a six-member team that will monitor the process leading to general elections in Grenada next January 18. The OAS is observing the polls at the invitation of the Grenada government.

The OAS deputy chief noted that the hemispheric Organization was happy to send its experts as a result of the Prime Minister’s request to do their part as the Grenadian people once again would seek to renew their conviction in the democratic process. While in Grenada, Ambassador Thomas and the team will meet with the country’s Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell and opposition leaders as well as other political and civic leaders on the island.

Chief of Mission Ambassador Joseph Edmunds, a former Ambassador of St. Lucia, and Mr. Steven Griner, Specialist with the Unit for the Promotion of Democracy (UPD), leave for Grenada on Tuesday. Ambassador Edmunds will coordinate the operations on the ground. The observation mission’s work will also entail visits to the Supervisor of Commission and to polling stations on election day to see the balloting and vote count processes at work as well as the transmission of results.

The election observers will remain in Grenada until the final election results of the poll are posted. They will then put together a report to the OAS Secretary General with their findings on how the entire process went.

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