Ambassador Tarlie Francis and OAS Secretary General Albert R Ramdin. Photo: CMC/OAS
The Organisation of American States (OAS) on Friday signed an agreement with the Grenada government providing for the privileges and immunities of the OAS Electoral Observation Mission (EOM), which will observe the 5 November general election.
The agreement was signed by OAS Secretary General Albert R Ramdin and the Permanent Representative of Grenada to the OAS Ambassador Tarlie Francis. “It is not the size of the country that matters, but the quality of its elections and the value they hold for its people,” Ramdin said at the ceremony at OAS headquarters, highlighting Grenada’s commitment to democracy and the strength of its electoral processes.
He said that the OAS mission will present a report containing observations and recommendations aimed at further strengthening the Caribbean country’s democratic institutions and processes.
Ambassador Francis reaffirmed Grenada’s commitment to constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and electoral transparency. “Independent electoral observation has become a very important part of the inter-American democratic tradition. Its value lies in the impartiality of the observers, the integrity of their assessments, and the opportunities their findings provide for institutional learning and continuous improvement,” Ambassador Francis said.
The OAS mission will be led by former St Kitts and Nevis ambassador Sherry Tross. The OAS has observed the electoral processes in Grenada since 1984. This will be the OAS’s 9th electoral mission to Grenada.
The Parliamentary Elections Office (PEO) in Grenada said that 97,020 people have been registered to vote in the election, as compared with 87,566 in 2022 when the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) won 9 of the 15 seats at stake, with the remainder going to the New National Party (NNP), which had controlled all the seats in the Parliament.
Both the NDC and the NNP have nominated candidates for all 15 constituencies, with the PEO indicating that 46 people have been nominated to contest the elections.
The newly formed Democratic People’s Movement (DPM) of former foreign affairs minister Peter David is contesting 9 seats in the election.
CMC
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