 The St. Lucia Electoral Department is ready in its staff as the country gets up for the 2021 general election. Staff of the department has commenced training sessions with a view of re-familiarizing officers with their role and responsibilities come election day. This time around, the department is working not only to ensure a smooth and fair general election, but also a safe one as St. Lucia continues to fight against the spread of COVID-19. We hear more in this report. The St. Lucia Electoral Department is ready in its officers for the 2021 general election. The department on Wednesday held a training session for returning officers, election clerks and assistant election clerks. The training according to special assistant to the chief elections officer Hermann St. Heling was geared towards getting the officers reacquainted with their roles, functions and the material used and what is expected of them come election day. This is a compulsory exercise for election staff, which occurs every general election and is facilitated by the Electoral Department. The training is conducted over several sessions and is done in a train-the-trainer format. There are a couple new things. There is a new set of protocols because of the COVID pandemic and we must observe all the protocols which are in place as it pertains to social distancing, the wearing of mask and these kind of issues. Yes, there are quite different. There are new protocols. In addition, we can see a change in the number of people who would be working within the polling station to accommodate those changes. The workshop is very interactive, so it means that the staff are already interested in the election staff and we anticipate a good turnout from them and we expect them to do the best as it pertains to what they are and what they are supposed to do for the upcoming elections. Usually, St. Lucia has a reputation for conducting free and fair elections without interferences and we would expect no less from them this time around. The Electoral Commission is also playing its part to ensure a seamless and fair general election. The three-member entity was on site to ensure that the preparations for the upcoming general election ran smoothly and up to par. The commission is appointed by the governor general, one appointed by the governor general upon consultation with the opposition leader, another appointed by the governor general upon consultation with the prime minister and one appointed by the governor general's own deliberate judgment. The commission is responsible for two major processes which include the registration of voters to elect members to the house and the conduct of elections. Sinfia Kombi Mata is the chairperson of the commission. We attended a zoom meeting with the ministry of health, the CMO, the ministry of external affairs and the police commission and a few persons stakeholders with the responsibility for addressing and dealing with the international observers. St. Lucia invited well the honourable prime minister invited three observer missions. So we have a mission from the OAS, CARICOM and Commonwealth and they will be arriving few days or a day or two just before the advance poll which takes place on the 23rd of July 2021 and the general poll takes place on the 26th of July. The chairperson explained the role of the observers. The observers really are here to observe the election and to ensure well the presence of observers in its in of itself gives some sort of validity to your process. They had to ensure that the process is fair, transparent and there's nothing that could invalidate it in any way. So they they observe the process, they observe our computer systems, how we transmit the results, they are here from the opening of poll, they see everything that goes on during the poll because they observe and they go from polling station to polling station and to observe that the election workers are doing what they're supposed to do to ensure the validity and fairness of the vote. The training session was held at the Casteries Comprehensive Secondary School on Wednesday 14th July 2021.