Elections office appoints local observers
(CNS): In addition to the team of international observers that the government has invited to oversee the 2013 Cayman Islands General Election next week, the Elections Office has appointed a team of local observers. Supervisor of Elections Kearney Gomez confirmed that the Cayman observers are independent and separate from the international mission but they are available to work in conjunction with the international team ifthey wish. The primary focus of the local observers is to focus on the operations and to provide an extra layer of scrutiny. The first domestic observers were appointedfor the referendum on the constitution in 2009 and a team was also appointed to oversee the one man-one vote national poll last July.
Gomez said the decision to introduce local observers was made after the 2009 election following the success of referendum observers and not as a result of the imminent arrival of the international mission due in Cayman on Wednesday night.
The Elections Office’s domestic team will observe proceedings at the polls and counting stations and as well as providing an extra set of eyes. The office said they have some important advantages on those from overseas, as they are more familiar with the system here and how things should be running as well as the cultural differences.
Fully behind the idea of having a foreign observer mission, the Elecitons Office noted that the Commonwealth associaiton also recognizes the vital role of domestic observers.
The timely opening of the polls, queues at polling stations, expeditious polling, the close of the polls and the conduct of the various counts in the six electoral districts will be the areas which local observers will be watching.
“While they will be functioning independent of the Commonwealth Observer Group (COG), should that group wish to work with the domestic observer team to avoid any change of duplication and maximize the overall observation effort, they may," Gomez said. “The domestic observer team will be operating under a specific observer pledge and operation orders. They, like election officers, will perform their assignment without partiality, fear, favour or affection. They are there to observe not to interfere,” he added.
The members of the domestic observer team are:
Norman Bodden – Team Leader
Georgette Myrie
John MacMillan
Rev. Alson Ebanks
Gilbert Connolly
Carol Winker
Adrian Estwick
Edgar Ashton Bodden – CYB & LCM
Joel Scott Sr. CYB & LCM
Category: Politics
How can Norman Bodden be an impartial Observer when he endorsed a PPM Candidate and sat on the PPM Platform? Wow…….XXXXX
The bigger questions are:
1) who put him forward as an Observer?
2) who thought he should be team leader?
3) does Gomez have any criteria for these observers? and
4) if there is criteria, and everybody knows that Norman endorsed a candidate, how can he still be an observer, much less team leader?
And Karin Thompson has the nerve to speak about urging Civil Servants to think about conflicts??? She should go and preach to Norman.
He also nominated one candidate and seconded another. You'd think he would know better. XXXXX
How can the elections office appoint such persons as observers, they should all be independent. Norman Bodden was chair of the meeting to launch the PPM and he also nominated Mike Adams. How canhe be the Team leader, Gilbert connolly would have been a much better team leader.
You mean UDP-Gilbert? Ex-husband of JOCC? You might as well put Mckeeva
Mike Adams is UDP right? So that probably cancels out his chairing the PPM meeting.