Dillon on Caricom observer mission to St Vincent

FORMER government minister and MP Edmund Dillon and former Elections and Boundaries Commission chief elections officer Ramesh Nanan will be joining a Caricom elections observer mission for the St Vincent and the Grenadines general election on November 5.

In a statement, the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) said Dillon and Nanan will represent TT.

Caricom nvited Government to participate in the mission.

Dillon served as Point Fortin MP from September 7, 2015-August 10, 2020. During that period, he also served as national security minister and housing minister. He is also a retired major general and former chief of staff of the Defence Force.

The OPM said all costs for the mission will be covered by Caricom member states' contributions, while it is in St Vincent from October 29 to November 7.

St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves announced the election date on October 8 and the country's parliament was dissolved the next day. Nomination Day was October 20.

The election is expected to be a battle between Gonsalves' United Labour Party (ULP) and the New Democratic Party (NDP) led by Dr Goodwin Friday.

Friday replaced Armhin Eustace as NDP leader, after Eustace led the party to four consecutive defeats in the previous elections.

Gonsalves is hoping to be elected for a fifth consecutive term.

In the last election in December 2015, the ULP defeated the NDP eight to seven. The ULP won by the same margin in the previous election in 2010. Gonsalves had promised the election would be held this year ahead of the constitutional deadline of March next year.