Poll audit team named
Stabroek News
Retired Trinidad and Tobago Court of Appeal Judge, Ulric Cross was yesterday confirmed as head of the team to conduct the audit of the December 15 elections. His appointment was confirmed to Stabroek News by CARICOM chairman. Dr Keith Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada, who said that things would be "moving very quickly from now on." Mitchell said last night that he expected that enabling legislation, now being finalised by the lawyers of the People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/Civic) and the People's National Congress (PNC) should be ready for parliament when it convenes on February 26. Sources say the audit team is likely to be accompanied to Guyana for the launching of the probe by either Jamaican Prime Minister, P J Patterson, or St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, James Mitchell. Justice Cross served as his country's High Commissioner to London, as chairman of the Commonwealth Foundation and is a former chairman of the Arbitral Tribunal of the Commonwealth Secretariat. The other members of the team confirmed by Dr Mitchell are Justin Daniel of St Lucia, Dr Dinanath Gajadar and Frank Phillips of Trinidad and Tobago, Dennis Smith of Barbados, Noel Lee of Jamaica and Carol Jerome-Horsford of Grenada. They were selected from a list of nine names proposed by Dr Mitchell. The names left off were Trinidad and Tobago's Chief Elections Officer, Jocelyn Lucas and former Deputy Chief Electoral Officer of Barbados, Mersada Elcock. Dr Mitchell said that the members of team were being contacted and would be ready to travel to Guyana very soon. He said too that the technical support team comprising accountants and computer experts was also being mobilised so that it could arrive at the same time as the audit team. The members of the team have wide experience of electoral matters and Smith and Lee were familiar with the electoral process here having visited Guyana several times to assist with the preparations for elections and as part of foreign observer missions. Smith served as Chief Electoral Officer of Barbados from 1971-1991 and was a member of the Carter Center team which observed the October 1992 elections. He also led a team of election experts which assisted the Elections Commission in designing and implementing the administrative and operational systems required to ensure all elections were transparent, free and fair. Lee who is a chartered accountant and has a M.Sc (Accounting) from the University of the West Indies, served as Jamaica's Director of Elections from 1981-1993 and is presently an accountant in the Ministry of National Security. He has visited Guyana on pre-election assignments for the Commonwealth Secretariat and CARICOM. He organised the 1992 elections in Lesotho on behalf of the British Overseas Development Administration and was Special Adviser to the Secretary General of the Organisation of American States for the 1990 elections in Haiti. Lee has participated in the elections process in some twenty other countries including Grenada, South Africa and Bangladesh. Dr Gajadar who was persuaded to return from South Africa to undertake this assignment is Deputy Chief Elections Officer with the Elections and Boundaries Commission of Trinidad and Tobago. Daniel has been St Lucia's Chief Elections Officer since 1979 and is a member of the CARICOM Working Group of Senior Elections Officials. He has observed elections in Santo Domingo, El Salvador and Suriname, Bangladesh and Haiti. Phillips has been involved in the supervision and control of Elections and By-Elections at both the parliamentary and local government level. He was also a member of the team that supervised the 1989 elections in Namibia. Jerome-Horsford has been an assistant supervisor of parliamentary elections in Grenada for the past fourteen years. 
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