Caribbean Net News

WASHINGTON, USA — The Assis­tant Sec­re­tary Gen­eral of the Orga­ni­za­tion of Amer­i­can States (OAS), Ambas­sador Albert Ramdin, on Fri­day met with the Direc­tor of the United Nations Elec­toral Assis­tance Divi­sion and Haiti Mis­sion Chief, Tad­jou­dine Ali-Diabacté.

OAS Assis­tant Sec­re­tary Gen­eral, Albert Ramdin    (OAS photo)

At the meet­ing, they exchanged views on past vis­its of their orga­ni­za­tions to the Caribbean nation to con­duct needs assess­ments and lay the ground­work for the pres­i­den­tial elec­tions that are sched­uled for the end of the year, as estab­lished by the Hait­ian Constitution.

Agree­ing on most of the con­clu­sions reached, the two agreed to work jointly and in a coor­di­nated way to sup­port Haiti before, dur­ing and after the vote count. “We want to go towards elec­tions and have a legit­i­mate gov­ern­ment with a pres­i­dent, vice pres­i­dent, and a leg­isla­tive frame­work,” said the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary General.

For his part, UN rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tad­jou­dine Ali-Diabacté said that “we must speak with one voice and coor­di­nate, in many ways, to sup­port the Hait­ian peo­ple who need our help.”

Dur­ing the meet­ing, Ramdin made a com­pre­hen­sive pre­sen­ta­tion on the tech­ni­cal sup­port that the OAS, through its Depart­ment for Elec­toral Coop­er­a­tion and Obser­va­tion (DECO), has pro­vided and will deliver dur­ing the elections.

“We will assist in the reg­is­tra­tion, dis­tri­b­u­tion, and print­ing of reg­is­tra­tion cards and work with new vot­ers’ lists,” he stated, promis­ing then that the OAS will pro­vide “tech­ni­cal assis­tance called for by the Pro­vi­sional Elec­toral Coun­cil (CEP) with staff train­ing to man­age the data­bases and appli­ca­tions from Oracle.”

Finally, Ramdin said he would estab­lish “tech­ni­cal advi­sory capac­ity in the tab­u­la­tion cen­ter, the equip­ment, and the operators.”

The OAS will send an Elec­toral Obser­va­tion Mis­sion for the Hait­ian elec­tions “that will mate­ri­al­ize as we move for­ward in the elec­tions,” said Ramdin.

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