Voters in the hurricane-wracked twin island nation of Antigua and Barbuda headed to the polls Wednesday to elect a new government after Prime Minister Gaston Browne called snap elections.

Browne's Antigua Barbuda Labour Party, which has led the eastern Caribbean country since 2014, is widely expected to secure a second consecutive term.

The prime minister announced general elections on February 24, 15 months before a constitutionally mandated deadline, giving opposition parties less than four weeks to prepare.

And there will be no polling stations on Barbuda, which was battered by Hurricane Irma in September.

As a result, the estimated 400 Barbudans who have since returned home will have to travel to Antigua to cast their ballot. The government has promised to pay for related transport, accommodation and meal expenses.

Just over 51,000 Antiguans and Barbudans are eligible to vote. Voter turnout was around 90 percent in 2014.

Browne says the government wants to protect half a billion US dollars worth of developments currently under construction in the tourism-dependent country, and provide investors with stability.

One of the most prominent –- and controversial -- projects is a $250 million mega resort being built by Hollywood star Robert De Niro on Barbuda which was devastated by Hurricane Irma in September.

Lowering the cost of living in the country of 100,000 people is high on the agenda.

Browne, a former businessman and banker, has pledged to reduce electricity bills, along with the cost of land, and provide more affordable housing, under the slogan "Rebuilding Together." His wife Maria is also running for a seat on an ABLP ticket.

On Sunday, thousands of Browne's supporters donned the party's red colors and walked alongside a motorcade in an event that culminated in a public rally.

The "Delivering Hope" campaign of the main opposition group, the United Progressive Party (UPP), cites revitalization of the tourism and agricultural sectors as key priorities.

Fifty-three candidates will vie for seats in the 17 single-member constituencies -- of which the ABLP currently holds 14 -- in a first-past-the-post system.

The ruling party is alone in presenting a full slate of 17 candidates. The UPP, led by former finance minister Harold Lovell, has put forward 16.

A new party, the Democratic National Alliance, headed by current lawmaker and former UPP representative Joanne Massiah has registered 13 candidates.

There is a handful of smaller parties, a single independent runner and one representing the Barbuda People's Movement (BPM) contesting the small island's sole seat.

Polling stations opened at 6:00 am (1000 GMT) and are due to close at 6:00 pm. Alcohol sales are restricted during those hours and all public schools are closed, as many are serving as polling stations.

Teams representing the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are observing the elections.

On its path through the Caribbean in September, Irma caused "absolute devastation" on Barbuda where up to 30 percent of properties were demolished, and 95 percent damaged, Browne had said at the time.

After a 10-year hiatus, voters returned Browne's Labour Party to power during the last ballot four years ago, when he pledged to economically transform the country.

The country became fully independent from Britain in 1981. </s> The State Board of Elections is urging utility workers, volunteers, and anyone who may help with disaster relief efforts in Hurricane Matthew-affected areas to vote before they travel out-of-state.

“There is no assurance that those impacted will return in time to cast an in-person vote on November 8, 2016,” a statement from the board said. “Early voting prior to departing guarantees utility workers, volunteers, and others involved in the clean-up that their ballots will be cast.”

The Board said early voting is the best option for those anticipating assisting in Hurricane Matthew clean-up efforts because it avoids the potential issues that can occur with mail-in ballots. Residents can find early voting locations at http://www.elections.il.gov by clicking “Voters” and “When and Where Can I Vote.”

The State Board of Elections is an independent state agency charged with the responsibility of having general supervision over the administration of election laws of the State of Illinois. </s> WILLEMSTAD – The Supreme Electoral Council (SEC) held its first briefing today at 12 o’clock. According to Pacheco Römer, chairman of the SEC, up until that moment, 21,571 people voted which represents about 20% of the total voters on the island. “This is a good sign because normally this is 12 to 15%,” said Römer during the briefing.

Voting will end at 7 o’clock and the SEC expects the first results to come in at 7:30pm. With all probability, the prison will be the first to announce its results.

This year the SEC kept the number of voters for each polling stations small. None of the polling stations received more than 1500 voters. This means that the vote counting will take less time and the results will be in before the end of the day.

The SEC expects that all the results will be in by 12 o’clock tonight. </s> Barbudans have for the first time in their history been forced to travel by fishing boat, ferry and charter plane to neighbouring Antigua to vote in their elections – a move many on the hurricane-ravaged island see as a ploy to discourage them from voting.

Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, called a snap election last month – 18 months ahead of time.

All of Barbuda’s 1,600 residents were evacuated to Antigua when Hurricane Irma smashed into the Caribbean nation six months ago. Many have remained on Antigua, and so the electoral commission decided that voting could only be held on the larger island. </s> A customer checks sugar cane sold by a street vendor next to posters of presidential candidate Jovenel Moise of PHTK (Bald Head Haitian Party) before the election in a street of Les Cayes, Haiti, November 19, 2016. REUTERS/Andres Martinez Casares

LES CAYES, Haiti (Reuters) - Haiti held a long-delayed election on Sunday amid scenes of devastation in parts of the country, with voters hoping a new president will lift the economy after a destructive hurricane and more than a year of political instability.

First held in October 2015, the election was annulled over allegations of fraud, and a rescheduled vote was postponed last month when Hurricane Matthew struck, killing up to 1,000 people and leaving 1.4 million needing humanitarian aid.

Homes, schools and farms across southwestern Haiti all bear the scars of Matthew, which piled fresh misery onto the nation of more than 10 million on the western half of the island of Hispaniola still recovering from a major earthquake in 2010.

"We are in a political crisis. We need an elected government to get out of this situation," said 19-year-old Launes Delmazin as he voted for the first time in a school in Les Cayes, a southwestern port ravaged by Matthew last month.

Polling stations were due to open at 6 a.m. local time (6.00 a.m. ET), although some were slow to do so. Some people in the capital, Port-au-Prince, complained they were unable to vote because their names did not appear on lists at the stations.

Still, early indications from electoral observers suggested the balloting was proceeding more smoothly than last year.

More than two dozen candidates are competing to succeed Michel Martelly, who left the presidency in February. Since then, a caretaker government has run the country.

Local opinion polls are viewed with skepticism by civil society groups, though a recent survey by pollster BRIDES made local entrepreneur Jovenel Moise the favorite to take the presidency for Martelly's Bald Heads Party in the first round.

Among his competitors are the onetime boss of a government construction company, Jude Celestin, former senator Moise Jean-Charles, and Maryse Narcisse, a doctor backed by ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) said on Thursday preliminary results of the vote are not expected until Monday.

Unless one candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote or wins by at least 25 percentage points, a second round run-off is in prospect for the top two finishers on Jan. 29. The victor is scheduled to take office in February.

Officials said the lingering effects of the hurricane risk depressing voter turnout in the poorest country in the western hemisphere, where democratic participation is generally low.

Haiti's political leaders urged people to get out and vote.

"Today is the day when the Haitian people are called to choose between chaos, anarchy or political stability," said interim President Jocelerme Privert, who is not running.

In Damassin on the southern coast, house after house was covered with tarpaulin, downed trees lined roads and the polling center, a school, was filled with debris and had no roof, forcing officials to move the vote to a small blue tent outside.

"The country has been destroyed," said Luc Albert Jean-Claude, a 74-year-old farmer casting his vote in Damassin. "We want the country to return to a normal state."

To safeguard voting in a country with a history of electoral violence, around 13,000 officers from the national police and the United Nations were mobilized for Sunday.

Justice Minister Camille Edouard told Reuters "at least a dozen" people had been arrested on suspicion of trying to commit electoral fraud or tamper with the process.

However, OCID, a group observing the elections, said in a initial review that most polling stations were operating normally and that they had logged less than a quarter the number of complaints registered at this point in October 2015. </s> St. John's (Antigua and Barbuda) (AFP) - Voters in the hurricane-wracked twin island nation of Antigua and Barbuda headed to the polls Wednesday to elect a new government after Prime Minister Gaston Browne called snap elections.

Browne's Antigua Barbuda Labour Party, which has led the eastern Caribbean country since 2014, is widely expected to secure a second consecutive term.

The prime minister announced general elections on February 24, 15 months before a constitutionally mandated deadline, giving opposition parties less than four weeks to prepare.

And there will be no polling stations on Barbuda, which was battered by Hurricane Irma in September.

As a result, the estimated 400 Barbudans who have since returned home will have to travel to Antigua to cast their ballot. The government has promised to pay for related transport, accommodation and meal expenses.

Just over 51,000 Antiguans and Barbudans are eligible to vote. Voter turnout was around 90 percent in 2014.

Browne says the government wants to protect half a billion US dollars worth of developments currently under construction in the tourism-dependent country, and provide investors with stability.

One of the most prominent ?- and controversial -- projects is a $250 million mega resort being built by Hollywood star Robert De Niro on Barbuda which was devastated by Hurricane Irma in September.

Lowering the cost of living in the country of 100,000 people is high on the agenda.

Browne, a former businessman and banker, has pledged to reduce electricity bills, along with the cost of land, and provide more affordable housing, under the slogan "Rebuilding Together." His wife Maria is also running for a seat on an ABLP ticket.

On Sunday, thousands of Browne's supporters donned the party's red colors and walked alongside a motorcade in an event that culminated in a public rally.

The "Delivering Hope" campaign of the main opposition group, the United Progressive Party (UPP), cites revitalization of the tourism and agricultural sectors as key priorities.

Fifty-three candidates will vie for seats in the 17 single-member constituencies -- of which the ABLP currently holds 14 -- in a first-past-the-post system.

The ruling party is alone in presenting a full slate of 17 candidates. The UPP, led by former finance minister Harold Lovell, has put forward 16.

A new party, the Democratic National Alliance, headed by current lawmaker and former UPP representative Joanne Massiah has registered 13 candidates.

There is a handful of smaller parties, a single independent runner and one representing the Barbuda People's Movement (BPM) contesting the small island's sole seat.

Polling stations opened at 6:00 am (1000 GMT) and are due to close at 6:00 pm. Alcohol sales are restricted during those hours and all public schools are closed, as many are serving as polling stations.

Teams representing the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are observing the elections.

On its path through the Caribbean in September, Irma caused "absolute devastation" on Barbuda where up to 30 percent of properties were demolished, and 95 percent damaged, Browne had said at the time.

After a 10-year hiatus, voters returned Browne's Labour Party to power during the last ballot four years ago, when he pledged to economically transform the country.

The country became fully independent from Britain in 1981. </s> PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Voters will have their say Sunday in a repeatedly derailed presidential election that leaders hope will get Haiti’s shaky democracy on a sturdier track.

The Caribbean nation’s roughly 6 million registered voters don’t lack for choice: 27 presidential candidates are on the ballot. The top two finishers will meet in a Jan. 29 runoff unless one candidate in the crowded field somehow manages to win a majority of the votes.

No results are scheduled to be released for eight days, but electoral council director Uder Antoine has said it might take longer.

The balloting will also complete Parliament as voters pick a third of the Senate and the 25 remaining members of the Chamber of Deputies.

Results of last year’s presidential election were disputed and then annulled after a special commission reported finding what appeared to be significant fraud and professional misconduct.

Most Haitians typically stay away from the polls, in part because they are repelled by the chronic ineffectiveness and broken promises of their elected officials. But there are Haitians who say they are determined to vote, hopeful new leaders might be able to relieve Haiti’s chronic poverty and political turbulence.

“Nothing will stop me from voting. We all have to step up and help solve Haiti’s problems,” said Mickenson Berger, who has been cutting hair on a Port-au-Prince street corner since his barber shop was destroyed in the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Haiti has had a caretaker government for nearly a year, and the new president will face a slew of immediate and long-term challenges.

With the depreciation of the currency, the gourde, the cost of living has risen sharply. Haiti is deeply in debt and public coffers are largely depleted. The southwest is in shambles from last month’s Hurricane Matthew and parts of the north have been battered by recent floods.

Haiti is the poorest nation in the hemisphere and one of the most unequal in the world.

“Public institutions remain weak, and life-crushing poverty remains the daily reality of most of its citizens. Environmental degradation has left the population and the country’s productive infrastructure highly vulnerable to shocks,” said Robert Maguire, a Haiti expert who is an international affairs professor at George Washington University.

A revamped Provisional Electoral Council, known as the CEP, has gotten high marks for organizing Sunday’s vote with some $25 million from the government. It replaced a council that was marred by internal discord and widespread allegations of fraud.

“So far, this CEP has done a good job. Their credibility is very high,” said Rosny Desroches of the Haitian group Citizen Observatory for Institutionalizing Democracy, which will have 1,500 observers monitoring the national vote.

Delegations from the Organization of American States and the Caribbean Community are here to watch the election. The European Union withdrew its monitors in frustration earlier this year after officials annulled results from the 2015 vote.

As always with Haitian elections, security is a big concern. The Haitian National Police, which has been strengthened with international assistance, is playing a far greater role in maintaining security than it did in previous electoral cycles.

A total of 2,026 U.N. police officers and 1,468 peacekeeper troops will assist nearly 9,500 members of Haiti’s police force maintain security. There will also be some 5,400 security agents conscripted by the Provisional Electoral Council to help keep order at voting centers. </s> FORMER Foreign Minister and Attorney-General of The Bahamas, Janet Bostwick will lead a Commonwealth Observer Group to monitor the Antigua and Barbuda general election today.

The group arrived in the country on March 16 and has met with the Prime Minister, the electoral commission, representatives of political parties, civil society representatives, media organisations and domestic and international observer groups.

Mrs Bostwick said: “On behalf of the group, I wish the people of Antigua and Barbuda well as they go out to exercise their franchise. We will assess whether the elections have been conducted according to the national laws of Antigua and Barbuda, and to the relevant regional, Commonwealth and other international standards to which Antigua and Barbuda has committed itself.”

She continued: “For the remainder of the time before polling commences we will observe campaigning and continue to meet a range of relevant stakeholders to the election process.”

The group will observe at different polling stations and constituencies across Antigua, including the polling for Barbudans. They will observe the opening of the polling stations, the casting of votes, the count and the declaration of results, as well as liaising with observers from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Organization of American States (OAS).

Last month, Prime Minister Gaston Browne announced that Antigua and Barbuda would hold a general election on March 21, more than a year before elections were constitutionally due.

These elections will contest the 17 seats in the lower chamber of Antigua and Barbuda’s bicameral parliament. At dissolution, a majority of 14 seats was held by Prime Minister Browne’s Antigua Labour Party with the remaining three seats held by the United Progressive Party. </s> THE Supreme Court (SC), sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), will start the recount of votes for the electoral protest filed by former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. against Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo on Monday.

The place for the revision of votes for the Marcos-Robredo electoral protest will be at the gymnasium at the 5th Floor of the SC-Court of Appeals (CA) Building in Padre Faura, Manila.

The recount will be conducted until Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with two 15-minute breaks and a one-hour lunch break.

Lawyer Jose Lemuel Arenas, a PET ad hoc committee member, said the revision was the process of verifying the ballots, to recount the votes of the parties, and to record the objections or claims of the parties.

He said there were 5,418 clustered precincts that would cover the three pilot provinces of Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental, which were chosen by Marcos as the best provinces where he could prove the irregularities he cited in his poll protest.

Arenas said for each table, there will be three revisors – the head revisor (employee of PET), the protestant’s revisor and the protestee’s revisor.

The revisors will not be allowed to bring in their personal belongings, including their mobile phones, inside the venue. The PET has provided a locker for their belongings.

He noted that the time limit per ballot box with less than 300 votes would be 5.5 hours while for 300-700 votes would be 8.25 hours and for more than 700 votes would be 11 hours.

The tribunal is expecting some 213 personnel to come in per day during the recount. These include 60 employees of the tribunal, psychometricians, lawyers and representatives of both parties, and the revisors.

The revisors are part of the tribunal’s committee tasked to examine the contested ballots.

Arenas, said that the PET was currently housing some 1,400 ballot boxes from Camarines Sur.

Arenas said that other ballot boxes were currently with the Commission on Elections, due to storage issues.

Once the recount on the first 1,400 ballot boxes is done, the PET will receive the other ballot boxes from Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental.

Members of the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), the Police Security Protection Group and PET guards will secure the recount venue round-the-clock.

CCTVs were also installed on all four corners of the recount venue and the storage area.

Lawyer Ma. Carina Cunanan, another PET ad hoc committee member, said that the tribunal was expecting to augment 101 security personnel this coming week with more members of the PNP.

She added that the parties would not be allowed to bring in their security.

The PET said it still could not determine when the recount would be finished.

The recount was initially scheduled in February, was later reset to March 19, and again moved to April 2.

Both camps agreed to withdraw all motions they had filed before the PET to be able to proceed with the recount.

Marcos filed the protest on June 29, 2016, claiming that the camp of Robredo cheated in the automated polls in May that year.

In his protest, Marcos contested the results from 132,446 precincts in 39,221 clusters, covering 27 provinces and cities.

In his preliminary conference briefing, Marcos also sought for a recount in Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental.

Robredo filed her answer in August 2017 and also submitted a counter-protest, questioning the results from more than 30,000 polling precincts in several provinces where Marcos won.

She also sought the dismissal of the protest for lack of merit and jurisdiction of the PET.

The high tribunal, in a ruling in early 2018, junked Robredo’s plea and proceeded with the case after finding the protest sufficient in form and substance.

Robredo won the vice presidential race in the May 2016 polls with 14,418,817 votes or 263,473 more than Marcos’ 14,155,344 votes. PNA
Voters in Curaçao go to the polls to elect the 21 members of the Estates of Curaçao. The election had been delayed from September 30 due to Hurricane Matthew.