14 March 2001

Bonn, Germany: Thirty UN Volunteers arrived in Guyana late yesterday to take up two-week assignments as short-term observers for parliamentary elections on Monday, 19 March.

Recruited and fielded by the Bonn-based UNV programme for the European Union Observation Mission and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the observers will cover all 10 regions of the South American country in two-person teams.

The UN Volunteers are from Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. In addition, there are two UN Volunteers from Argentina under the White Helmets initiative serving as mid-term observers. UNV liaison and programme officers in the country will provide the UNV observers with logistical and administrative support.

The European Union, as part of its support to the electoral process at the request of the Government of Guyana, funds the short-term observer mission as well as a component of a separate long-term observation mission and training and educational activities for electoral personnel.

The UNVs observing the elections in Guyana will have the opportunity to join high-level observer groups from the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth, the Carter Centre, the Organization of American States, CARICOM and an international observer group. They will observe the elections process -- from the casting of ballots to the inauguration of the President. In addition, they will have the opportunity to demonstrate, by their presence in Guyana, the commitment of the international community to supporting the democratic process from the urban centres of Georgetown, to the sugar and rice farming communities, to communities of Amerindians living in remote locations.