Caricom sends team to monitor Antigua polls

CARICOM has sent a three-member team to Antigua/Barbuda for that country’s March 23 General Elections. The team is headed by Dennis A Smith and the other members are Mignon E Bowen and Eugene Petty.
They arrived in Antigua yesterday morning. A six-member team from the Commonwealth was due to arrive later in the day. Antigua Prime Minister Lester Bird wrote to the Secretaries General of  Caricom and the Commonwealth back in January, inviting both groupings to send teams to observe the poll. Mr Bird said he is delighted the Commonwealth Observer Mission will begin work immediately adding that: “It is important that these elections, like the 1999 Elections, receive an international stamp of approval, particularly as the leadership of the United Progressive Party (UPP) always try to excuse their defeat by claiming impropriety.”