GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — The Caribbean Community (Caricom) is mounting an electoral observer mission to monitor the general election in Jamaica on Thursday.

The mission is being headed by Josephine Tamai, chief elections officer of the Elections and Boundaries Department in Belize.

The other members of the mission comprise experts in electoral management and administration from Barbados, The Bahamas, Dominica, Saint Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Members of the mssion and the Caricom Secretariat support staff, who started arriving in Jamaica on the weekend, will depart by February 27.

While in Jamaica, the Caricom team will meet with Jamaican electoral officials, leaders of political parties, and other stakeholders.

“On the day of the elections, the mission will monitor the electoral process, including the opening of the poll, the voting process, the closing of the poll and the counting of the ballots,” a Caricom release said.

The observer mission will issue a preliminary statement based on its observations and findings.

A report of the general election will be subsequently prepared and submitted to the Caricom secretary-general.

For Caricom, election observation serves as a platform to support existing democratic traditions within the Caribbean Community as part of its wider policy of supporting democracy.