Grenada! Part II - The Election

The two days of vacation described in the previous post sandwiched two days of grueling election work. Here's what happened in a nutshell. Actually, it's pretty long so if you're not a nerd like me and you don't like politics you can just look at the pretty pictures.

The Politics of Grenada

I would describe the Grenadian election as the meeting of high school politics, British politics, and soccer. Because the population of the country is around 100,000 every vote counts. Virtually every voting-age citizen registered to vote and many ex-pats had returned just to vote. Grenada has what is known as a Westminster Parliamentary System (the British model) where the country is drawn up into different constinuencies and each constituency votes one person into Parliament. The leader of the majority party is then made Prime Minister, and he then appoints a Cabinet that constitutes another House in Parliament equal in power to the elected one. The country has 15 constituencies, and in the last election in 2003 the ruling party won a narrow 8-7 majority in Parliament. The vote in one of the constituencies, the distant islands of Carriacou and Petit Martinique, came down to a six votes. This extremely narrow margin of victory of course caused much bitterness and allegations of corruption (though none was noted by international observers). Thus, the buildup of tensions between the two parties, the winner take all system, and the uncertainty about who would win led the current election to be called'The Mother of All Elections.'

Grenada has a very tumultuous recent history and its politics are very polarized. Did you know that the US invaded Grenada in 1983? Some call it an act of hegemonism, but the US overthrew the Marxist military government and restored democracy, which is vibrant to this day. Grenadians are greatful to this day.

The two major parties, the conservative New National Party, which has been the ruling party for the last 15 years, and the opposition, the National Democratic Congress, have policies that are informed by the socialist policies of the pre-war government. I still haven't figured out how the two parties differ in terms of policy in any significant way. The young people generally support the NDC, and the older people the NNP. The NNP color is green, and the NDC color is yellow. The logo of the NNP is a house, the NDC a heart.

In fact, the colors and the logos are of pretty immense importance (think soccer). Before we arrived in Grenada, the Election Observation Mission supervisor stressed the necessity of wearing only white for our own safety. We observed many trucks and buses filled with NNP supporters in their colors waving their flags and NDC supporters in their garb zooming down the streets yelling and campaigning (or intimidating). Some 30% of voters said they were still undecided in a poll conducted a week before the election, probably out of concern for their safety.

NDC partisans

Quite literally everywhere one went in the country, even in roads in the heart of the rain forest, one could see election advertisements. I shouldn't say advertisements, but rather signs. Billboards, posters, flyers, and even chalk messages on the faces of cliffs and on roads met my eye at every turn. People plastered images and signs over the cars and houses too. It reminded me of high school elections, but on the national scale. For Penn students, imagine Locust Walk during UA elections week but on a national scale. And people actually caring.

A common NDC billboard. Note the shameless use of the heart logo.

A typical NNP poster

Election Monitoring

My four colleagues from the embassy and I were invited by OAS, who was invited by the Grenadian government. OAS is the Organization of American States, and every democracy in the western hemisphere (of which Grenada is the smallest) is an active member. It's a pretty small organization and the best way to describe it would be as an embassy representing the entire western hemisphere. In addition to election monitoring, OAS represents American states in WTO negotiations.

For this mission, however, it felt like OAS pulled people off the street to be observers. Our embassy sent two consular officers, two interns, and an administrative assistant (pretty much a receptionist). Others included professors from Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, diplomats from Canada and the British High Comission, a journalist, and a graduate student.

Monday was training day. We sat through hours of speakers and panels discussing the political situation, the checks and balances of the voting process, and dealing with all kinds of different circumstances that might arise. I have pretty good conference stamina, so I was okay for this part.

Then in the afternoon I was paired up with my partner, an IR and Latin American politics professor named Mark. We were assigned to the constituency of St. Andrew Northwest, which is a huge, landlocked chunk of land in the heart of the country where the mountains and the rainforest are. We hopped in a car with our Grenadian driver and set out to visit each polling station in our constituency so that we scout out their locations and plan our schedule for election day. The drive was grueling, fast, treacherous and nausea-inducing. The mountain roads are extremely narrow and winding and go along cliffs with no guard rail. Grenadian drivers drive extremely fast and recklessly, as I realized when my driver hit 95 mph on a curvy cliffside road.

My partner Dr. Mark Kirton, professor of IR and Latin American politics at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad & Tobago. I would have been quite lost without his experience.

The next day I woke at before 4am to make it our first polling station before the polls opened at 6am. We barely made it in time, but we did, thanks to our very fast driver. I was impressed with the voting system and the professionalism of the presiding officers and the police. The voting is done entirely on paper ballots. Even accomodations for the mentally and physically handicapped were impressive. The ballots showed the party logos prominently, which was probably for the 30% of the population that are illiterate.

One physically and mentally handicapped woman was carried in by another woman, who helped her vote, and then carried her out. I love democracy in action. Most of our polling stations recorded over 95% voter turnout before 3pm.

The physical condition of the polling stations were less than ideal, to say the least. And the complicated instructions for maintaining the secrecy of the ballot meant that voting progressed extremely slowly. Still, people waited in line for hours in the extreme heat to vote.

I suffered more than anyone. The temperature was in the upper 90s, and I had to wear jeans and sneakers, by OAS regulations. I unbuttoned my entire fly and rolled up my pant legs at one point. Ever the professional. Also, mosquitos love my flesh and in some polling stations I was literally devoured. Ever have dozens of mosquito bites while working in the extreme heat starting at 4am?

Aside from an hour for lunch, Mark and I monitored the polling stations, took notes, and interviewed people from the opening to the closing of the polls at 5pm. Then the real fun began. The presiding officer at the polling station opened up the ballot box and counted the votes in front of the police and representatives of the NNP and the NDC. This painstaking count took two hours. There were frequent delays when the officials debated whether certain ballots were spoiled because of the undecipherability of where the mark was made.

Mark and I then drove behind the police as they moved the ballot box to the elections office. Back at the hotel conference room an hour later, we wrote our report and recommendations. Ambassador Ramdin spoke, and each of the 18 teams debriefed the entire group. After closing remarks, around midnight we went to dinner at the hotel restaurant, where I promptly inhaled several scotches.

The election passed relatively uneventfully (by Grenadian standards) with no major electoral discrepancies observed by OAS. I did see some crowds of people down the road from polling stations, who Mark told me were "exit pollsters" intimidating voters. Nearing the closing of the polls, supporters of both parties began pouring into the streets expecting a celebration. They burned tires, began barbequeing, and waved torches and machetes (which many Grenadians carry around).

The NDC won in a landslide, taking 11 of the 15 seats.